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 Season poem – Alfred Austin
- Requiescat poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant
- a_choka_is_a_littoral_drift.html
- Николай Гумилев – Неоромантическая сказка
- Витамины
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Second Version
- A Light In The Attic by Shel Silverstein
- Владимир Маяковский – Подписи к рисункам в журнале “ВОБ”
- Fancy In Nubibus, Or The Poet In The Clouds by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- The Heäre by William Barnes
- Half The People In The World by Yehuda Amichai
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Марш веселых ребят
- How Am I? by Matt Bohart
- Омар Хайям – Да пребудет вино неразлучно с тобой
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
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 3 к статуе Петра Великого
- Михаил Ломоносов – Надпись 1 к статуе Петра Великого
- Михаил Ломоносов – На сочетание стихов Российских
- Михаил Ломоносов – На Сарское село августа 24 дня 1764 года
- Михаил Ломоносов – На Фридриха II, короля Прусского (Сочинение господина Вольтера, переведенное господином Ломоносовым)
- Михаил Ломоносов – Молчите, струйки чисты
- Михаил Ломоносов – Лишь только дневной шум замолк
- Михаил Ломоносов – День коронования Великия государыни императрицы Елисаветы Петровны
- Михаил Ломоносов – Чем ты дале прочь отходишь
- Михаил Ломоносов – Богиня, дщерь божеств, науки основавших
- Михаил Лермонтов – Звуки и взор
- Михаил Лермонтов – Зови надежду сновиденьем
- Михаил Лермонтов – Жена севера
- Михаил Лермонтов – Желанье
- Михаил Лермонтов – Земля и небо
- Михаил Лермонтов – Завещание
- Михаил Лермонтов – Забудь опять свои надежды
- Михаил Лермонтов – Юнкерская молитва
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я видел тень блаженства
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я счастлив, тайный яд течёт в моей крови
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.