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:
- june_sick_room.html
- Diary of a Palestinian Wound by Mahmoud Darwish
- Muttering by Satish Verma
- Adieu poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- Olney Hymn 61: The Narrow Way by William Cowper
- Down in the valley by Marcin Malek
- Алексей Хомяков – Ritterspruch – Richterspruch
- Ольга Седакова – Все труды
- Владимир Маяковский – Со страхом и трепетом открывали газету… (РОСТА №705)
- The Burning Crusade by Memphis Knight
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Богач
- Lynching
- City of Orgies. by Walt Whitman
- Aphrodite – The Birth by Uma Maheswari Anandane
- Old well by Yosa Buson
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
- Robert Burns: Poem On Pastoral Poetry :
- Robert Burns: On Glenriddell’s Fox Breaking His Chain: A Fragment
- Robert Burns: The Posie :
- Robert Burns: What Can A Young Lassie Do Wi’ An Auld Man:
- Robert Burns: The Charms Of Lovely Davies:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On Miss Davies: On being asked why she had been formed so little, and Mrs. A-so big.
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Wee Thing:
- Robert Burns: Craigieburn Wood:
- Robert Burns: Lines Sent To Sir John Whiteford, Bart: With The Lament On The Death Of the Earl Of Glencairn
- Robert Burns: Lament For James, Earl Of Glencairn:
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Third Version
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Second Version
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: First Version
- Robert Burns: Out Over The Forth:
- Robert Burns: There’ll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame:
- Robert Burns: Lament Of Mary, Queen Of Scots, On The Approach Of Spring:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Late Miss Burnet Of Monboddo :
- Robert Burns: On The Birth Of A Posthumous Child: Born in peculiar circumstances of family distress.
- Robert Burns: Tam O’ Shanter: A Tale
- Robert Burns: Verses On Captain Grose: Written on an Envelope, enclosing a Letter to Him.
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.