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.

A few random poems:
- All Night in Savannah the Wind Wrote Poetry by Aberjhani
- Rainy Day by Nikhil Jain
- Ольга Седакова – И меня удивило
- He, who was born poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Hero-Worship poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Языков – Прощальная песня (В последний раз приволье жизни братской)
- Andrew Jones by William Wordsworth
- Little Talk
- Lalila To The Ferengi Lover
- Muttering by Satish Verma
- Гавриил Державин – Задумчивость
- To Double Lock by Pierre Reverdy
- Ballade Of Roulette poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- A Strange Gentlewoman Passing By His Window by William Strode
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 A Goldfinch, Starved To Death In His Cage by William Cowper
- On A Fowler, By Isidorus by William Cowper
- On A Battered Beauty (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 9: The Contrite Heart by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 7: Vanity of the World by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 68: Light Shining Out Of Darkness by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 67: Longing To Be With Christ by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 66: I Will Praise The Lord At All Times by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 64: Praise For Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 63: Not Of Works by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 60: Abuse Of The Gospel by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 59: A Living And A Dead Faith by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 57: The New Convert by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 56: Hatred Of Sin by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 55: The Heart Healed And Changed By Mercy by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 54: Love Constraining To Obedience by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 53: My Soul Thirsteth For God by William Cowper
- Olney Hymn 52: For The Poor by William Cowper
More external links (open in a new tab):
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
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000) was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.