A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.
Words scored upon a bone,
Scratched in despair or rage —
Nine hundred years have gone;
Now, in another age,
They burn with passion on
A scholar’s tranquil page.
The scholar takes his pen
And turns the bone about,
And writes those words again.
Once more they seethe and shout
And through a human brain
Undying hate rings out.
“I loved her when a maid;
I loathe and love the wife
That warms another’s bed:
Let him beware his life!”
The scholar’s hand is stayed;
His pen becomes a knife
To grave in living bone
The fierce archaic cry.
He sits and reads his own
Dull sum of misery.
A thousand years have flown
Before that ink is dry.
And, in a foreign tongue,
A man, who is not he,
Reads and his heart is wrung
This ancient grief to see,
And thinks: When I am dung,
What bone shall speak for me?
A few random poems:
- Dialogue Between Ghost And Priest by Sylvia Plath
- The Cap And Bells by William Butler Yeats
- Untitled VII by Yunus Emre
- Full Moon by Walter de la Mare
- Джон Китс – Что ж, по горам и по долам
- Hellcat
- five moons for earth by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Собачий пир
- Denis poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Николай Гумилев – Орел Синдбада
- A Hand-Mirror. by Walt Whitman
- Home Burial by Robert Frost
- Владимир Маяковский – Странно… но верно
- Lines to John M’Murdo of Drumlanrig by Robert Burns
- On Messrs Hussey and Coffin by Phillis Wheatley
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
- Николай Языков – Романс (Что делал с Евою Адам)
- Николай Языков – Родина
- Николай Языков – Разбойники
- Николай Языков – Пушкину (О ты, чья дружба мне дороже)
- Николай Языков – Прошли младые наши годы
- Николай Языков – Прощальная песня (В последний раз приволье жизни братской)
- Николай Языков – Прими ты мой поклон заздравный
- Николай Языков – Поздравление М. Н. Дириной
- Николай Языков – Посвящение А. А. Воейковой «Песни короля Регнера»
- Николай Языков – Послание к Кулибину (Какой огонь тогда блистал)
- Николай Языков – Послание к Ф. И. Иноземцеву (Да сохранит тебя великий русский бог)
- Николай Языков – Послание к А. Н. Очкину (О, ты, с которым я, от юношеских лет)
- Николай Языков – Поэт (Радушно рабствует поэту)
- Николай Языков – Подражание псалму XIV
- Николай Языков – Подражание псалму
- Николай Языков – Пловец (Воют волны, скачут волны)
- Николай Языков – Песня (Я жду тебя, когда вечерней мглою)
- Николай Языков – Песня (Пусть свободны и легки)
- Николай Языков – Песня (От сердца дружные с вином)
- Николай Языков – Песня (Налей и мне, товарищ мой)
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.