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:
- Алексей Плещеев – Сон
- The Grave of the Hundered Head by Rudyard Kipling
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 XII. Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth
- Absence: A Farewell Ode On Quitting School For Jesus College by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Secret Garden by Rita Dove
- What Is Woman But A Song! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- night_piece.html
- Morning Poem #43 by Wanda Phipps
- Welcome To My World © by Shannen Wrass
- Robert Burns: O May, Thy Morn:
- Indian Dancer by Sarojini Naidu
- Auntie’s Skirts by Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Farewel To America to Mrs. S. W. by Phillis Wheatley
- He Hears The Cry Of The Sedge by William Butler Yeats
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
- Олег Бундур – Сложный предмет
- Олег Бундур – Сломанное дерево
- Олег Бундур – Скука
- Олег Бундур – Силачи
- Олег Бундур – Шляпа
- Олег Бундур – Школа живёт
- Олег Бундур – Семейный совет
- Олег Бундур – Счастливый
- Олег Бундур – Родня
- Олег Бундур – Разногласия
- Олег Бундур – Разговор
- Олег Бундур – Ранним утром
- Олег Бундур – Пёс
- Олег Бундур – Просьба
- Олег Бундур – Про затрещины
- Олег Бундур – Про любовь
- Олег Бундур – Про чемпионов
- Олег Бундур – Праздник встречи
- Олег Бундур – Поссорились
- Олег Бундур – После дождя
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.