The School of Night – The Poetry Monster

A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)

by Alec Derwent Hope

What did I study in your School of Night?

When your mouth’s first unfathomable yes

Opened your body to be my book, I read

My answers there and learned the spell aright,

Yet, though I searched and searched, could never guess

What spirits it raised nor where their questions led.

Those others, familiar tenants of your sleep,

The whisperers, the grave somnambulists

Whose eyes turn in to scrutinize their woe,

The giant who broods above the nightmare steep,

That sleeping girl, shuddering, with clenched fists,

A vampire baby suckling at her toe,

They taught me most. The scholar held his pen

And watched his blood drip thickly on the page

To form a text in unknown characters

Which, as I scanned them, changed and changed again:

The lines grew bars, the bars a Delphic cage

And I the captive of his magic verse.

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English

On The High Price Of Fish by William Cowper by William Cowper
On the Grasshopper (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of The Bishop Of Ely. Anno Aet. 17. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Death Of Damon. (Translated From Milton) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Benefit Received By His Majesty From Sea-Bathing, In The Year 1789 by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Author Of Letters On Literature by William Cowper by William Cowper
On The Astrologers (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receiving Heyne’s Virgil From Mr. Hayley by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receiving Hayley’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Receipt Of My Mother’s Picture by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Pedigree. From Epicharmus by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Pallas Bathing, From A Hymn Of Callimachus by William Cowper by William Cowper
On One Ignorant And Arrogant (Translated From Owen) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Observing Some Names Of Little Note Recorded In The Biographia Britannica by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Niobe (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Mrs. Montague’s Feather Hangings by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Miltiades by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Late Acquired Wealth (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Invalids (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

Parallel Translations of Poetry

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works

Alec Derwent-Hope

Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000) was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.

Tagged 20, 21, Alec Derwent-Hope, Australia, australianpoems, australianpoetry, australianpoets, contemporary, englishlanguage, modernism, satire, satyre, XX, XXI