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:
- Владимир Корнилов – Яблоки
- Feelings Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth
- Lighting one candle by Yosa Buson
- Юлия Друнина – Баллада о десанте
- Crazy Jane On The Mountain by William Butler Yeats
- Шекспир – Ты положи с моей любовью рядом – Сонет 117
- The Sea Took Pity poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Danish Boy by William Wordsworth
- The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- With No Experience In Such Matters by Stephen Dunn
- Impromptu, to Lady Winchelsea poem – Alexander Pope
- Don’t Need Anything by Pat Mullan
- Not A Star
- Sonnet 02 poem – John Milton poems
- Георгий Иванов – Теплятся жаркие свечи
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
- Иван Крылов – Ода, выбранная из псалма 14-го
- Иван Крылов – Лиса-строитель (Басня)
- Иван Крылов – Лев состаревшийся (Басня)
- Иван Козлов – Умирающая Эрменгарда
- Иван Коневской – Воскресение
- Иван Коневской – В небывалое
- Иван Елагин – Спрашивал ответа
- Иван Дмитриев – Сверчки
- Иван Дмитриев – Старик и трое молодых
- Иван Дмитриев – Смерть и Умирающий
- Иван Дмитриев – Слепец, Собака его и Школьник
- Иван Дмитриев – Шарлатан
- Иван Демьянов – Парикмахер рак-омар
- Иван Демьянов – Одежкин домик
- Иван Бунин – Норд-ост
- Иван Бунин – Ночного неба свод далекий
- Иван Бунин – Ночлег
- Иван Бунин – Ночь идет, и темнеет
- Иван Бунин – Никогда вы не воскреснете, не встанете
- Иван Бунин – Нет солнца, но светлы пруды
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.