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 Princess (part 2) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators Of His And Mine by William Butler Yeats
- Still poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- To A Girl In A Garden by Sappho
- Io v’amo sol perche (I Love You Simply Because) by Torquato Tasso
- A Wife In London by Thomas Hardy
- At Carnoy by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Irish Unionist’s farewell to Greta Hellastrom in 1922 poem – John Betjeman poems
- Анатолий Жигулин – Коломенское
- Robert Burns: Epitaph On Holy Willie:
- Anniversaries
- Nominalism Is A Liquid Kuhi
- from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare
- A Farm-Picture. by Walt Whitman
- Юнна Мориц – На Трафальгарской площади ночной
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
- River poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Rising Early poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Retake, Union Square poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Requiem For A Bartender’s Dream poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Repentance poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Prisoners poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Potions poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Once Upon A Wandering Mind poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- On A May Glory-A Welcome Song poem – Nithin Purple poems | Poetry Monster
- Now, What is Poetry? poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Night poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- My Father’s Love Letters poem – Yusef Komunyakaa poems | Poetry Monster
- Mules poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Love’s Confession poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- Life poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- La Vie Boheme poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- Journal Entry poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- [ I think I’m there? ] poem – Ygor Noblott poems | Poetry Monster
- Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee poem – Zameer Careem poems | Poetry Monster
- Heartbreak at 2 A.M. poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
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.