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:
- The Weather-Beaten Tree by William Barnes
- Night Words
- Not Intrigued With Evening by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- How to Become an Inspiration
- Magnolia Shoals by Sylvia Plath
- To A Lady On The Death Of The Three Relations by Phillis Wheatley
- Song—Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns
- Threshold by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Oak Of Guernica Supposed Address To The Same by William Wordsworth
- The Narrative by Talha Jafri
- Wardens Of The Wave poem – Alfred Austin
- Deaf Mute in the Pear Tree by P. K. Page
- On Miranda’s Leaving the Country by William Somervile
- An Adventure in the Life of King James V of Scotland by William Topaz McGonagall
- Executive poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- A Rustic Seat Near The Sea by William Lisle Bowles
- A Garden-Seat At Home by William Lisle Bowles
- Where fair Sabrina’s wand’ring currents flow by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. The Earl of Halifax , with the Fable of the Two Springs by William Somervile
- To the Right Hon. Lady Anne Coventry by William Somervile
- To the Duke of Marlborough, upon His Removal From All His Places by William Somervile
- To the Author of the The Essay on Man by William Somervile
- To Dr. MReading Mathmatics by William Somervile
- To a Young Lady, with the Illiad of Homer Translated by William Somervile
- To a Lady, Who Made Me a Present of a Silver Pen by William Somervile
- To a Gentleman, Who Married His Cast Mistress by William Somervile
- To a Discarded Toast by William Somervile
- The Yeoman of Kent by William Somervile
- The Wolf and the Dog by William Somervile
- The Wise Builder by William Somervile
- The Two Springs by William Somervile
- The True Use of the Looking-Glass by William Somervile
- The Superannuated Lover by William Somervile
- The Sheep and the Bush by William Somervile
- The Lamentation of David Over Saul and Jonathan by William Somervile
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.