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:
- Adelgitha by Thomas Campbell
- ” As faith thus sanctified the warrior’s crest” by William Wordsworth
- Вера Павлова – Снег
- The useless counsellor by Ross D Tyler
- Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Ecologue I by Virgil
- Владимир Степанов – Облако-овечка
- Tommy by Rudyard Kipling
- Winter Apples by Tatiana Gusarova, translated by Fledermaus
- Anterotics by William Ernest Henley
- Block City by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Аля Кудряшева – Осень в городе
- A Witch by William Barnes
- Two Songs for Hedli Anderson by W. H. Auden
- Николай Языков – Услад
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
- Владимир Степанов – Цыплята (Буква Ц)
- Владимир Степанов – Что мы Родиной зовём
- Владимир Степанов – Барби (Буква Б)
- Владимир Степанов – Акробат (Буква А)
- Владимир Соловьев – Знамение
- Владимир Солоухин – Яблоко
- Владимир Солоухин – Все смотрю
- Владимир Солоухин – Волки
- Владимир Солоухин – Ветер
- Владимир Солоухин – Вдоль берегов Болгарии прошли мы
- Владимир Солоухин – В лесу
- Владимир Солоухин – Утро
- Владимир Солоухин – У тихой речки детство проводя
- Владимир Солоухин – У моря
- Владимир Солоухин – Тропа нацелена в звезду
- Владимир Солоухин – Теперь-то уж плакать нечего
- Владимир Орлов – Очень хорошая девочка Яна
- Владимир Орлов – Ночной листок
- Владимир Орлов – Не боится Дима
- Владимир Орлов – Март
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.