A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
A Nation of trees, drab green and desolate grey
In the field uniform of modern wars,
Darkens her hills, those endless, outstretched paws
Of Sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away.
They call her a young country, but they lie:
She is the last of lands, the emptiest,
A woman beyond her change of life, a breast
Still tender but within the womb is dry.
Without songs, architecture, history:
The emotions and superstitions of younger lands,
Her rivers of water drown among inland sands,
The river of her immense stupidity
Floods her monotonous tribes from Cairns to Perth.
In them at last the ultimate men arrive
Whose boast is not: “we live” but “we survive”,
A type who will inhabit the dying earth.
And her five cities, like five teeming sores,
Each drains her: a vast parasite robber-state
Where second hand Europeans pullulate
Timidly on the edge of alien shores.
Yet there are some like me turn gladly home
From the lush jungle of modern thought, to find
The Arabian desert of the human mind,
Hoping, if still from the deserts the prophets come,
Such savage and scarlet as no green hills dare
Springs in that waste, some spirit which escapes
The learned doubt, the chatter of cultured apes
Which is called civilization over there.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Я знаю, люблю я бесплодно
- In the spring twilight by Sappho
- October by Robert Frost
- Ben Nevis: A Dialogue poem – John Keats poems
- Elegy, Imitated From One Of Akenside’s Blank-Verse Inscriptions by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Mulholland’s Contract by Rudyard Kipling
- One Word
- PLEADING by Satish Verma
- a delicate beauty along the shore by Raj Arumugam
- Two Travellers in the Place Vendome poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- If you love the life by Vinko Kalinić
- Echo by Thomas Moore
- Watching Unto God In The Night Season (2) by William Cowper
- Inspiration
- Алексей Плещеев – Сон
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
- The Haymakers’ Song poem – Alfred Austin
- Love’s Blindness poem – Alfred Austin
- At Her Grave poem – Alfred Austin
- At Delphi poem – Alfred Austin
- As Dies The Year poem – Alfred Austin
- Any Poet At Any Time poem – Alfred Austin
- An Experiment In Translation poem – Alfred Austin
- An Autumn Picture poem – Alfred Austin
- An Autumn Homily poem – Alfred Austin
- An Autumn-Blooming Rose poem – Alfred Austin
- An April Love poem – Alfred Austin
- An April Fool poem – Alfred Austin
- An Answer poem – Alfred Austin
- “Although no stupid scoffer, I” poem – Alfred Austin
- All Hail To The Czar! poem – Alfred Austin
- Alfred’s Song poem – Alfred Austin
- A Te Deum poem – Alfred Austin
- A Tale Of True Love poem – Alfred Austin
- A Spring Carol poem – Alfred Austin
- A Souless Singer poem – Alfred Austin
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.