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:
- Darkness
- Song of Poplars poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Merchant by Rabindranath Tagore
- Ольга Берггольц – Я тайно и горько ревную
- Владимир Маяковский – Нечеловеческой силы требовала война… (Главполитпросвет №285)
- Вера Павлова – Телефонные кнопки
- Какой ты сегодня взволнованный
- The Rainy Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- Guy Faux’s Night by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Неделя охраны труда (РОСТА № 317)
- Orlando Furioso Canto 18 by Ludovico Ariosto
- The Skies by William Cullen Bryant
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени 7
- The Minotaur by Ted Hughes
- Picture of Daniel in the Lion’s Den at Hamilton Palace by William Wordsworth
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
- A Snow-White Lily poem – Alfred Austin
- A Sleepless Night poem – Alfred Austin
- A Shakespeare Memorial poem – Alfred Austin
- A Royal Home-Coming poem – Alfred Austin
- A Reply To A Pessimist poem – Alfred Austin
- A Rare Guest poem – Alfred Austin
- A Question poem – Alfred Austin
- A Question Answered poem – Alfred Austin
- A Portrait poem – Alfred Austin
- A Point Of Honour poem – Alfred Austin
- A Poet’s Eightieth Birthday poem – Alfred Austin
- A November Note poem – Alfred Austin
- A Night In June poem – Alfred Austin
- A Meeting poem – Alfred Austin
- A March Minstrel poem – Alfred Austin
- A Letter From Italy poem – Alfred Austin
- A Last Request poem – Alfred Austin
- A Fragment poem – Alfred Austin
- A Florilegium poem – Alfred Austin
- A Farmhouse Dirge 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.