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 Hermocratia (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flaxman’s Penelope by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flatteries (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Female Inconstancy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Envy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Delia (Bid Adieu, My Sad Heart) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Ugly Fellow (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Old Woman (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Infant (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A True Friend (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Thief (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Plant Of Virgin’s-Bower, Designed To Cover A Garden-seat by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mistake In His Translation Of Homer by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mischievous Bull, Which The Owner Him Sold At The Author’s Instance by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Good Man (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