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:
- Олег Бундур – Добрый день
- The Poet as Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
- Николай Гумилев – Ольге Людвиговне Кардовской
- Зинаида Александрова – Гибель Чапаева
- Владимир Маяковский – У шахтера нет чая, нет табаку, нет сахару… (РОСТА №604)
- Admonition by Sylvia Plath
- Olney Hymn 48: Joy And Peace In Believing by William Cowper
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- Long Odds poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Invern poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Twins by Vinko Kalinić
- Robert Burns: Despondency: An Ode:
- The First Part: Sonnet 11 – Lamp of heaven’s crystal hall that brings the hours, by William Drummond
- Юрий Коринец – О стиральной машине
- Михаил Кузмин – Утешение
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
- Do You Know What It’s Like
- That devil of a man
- Because We Never Practiced With The Escape Chamber poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- Aplogize
- Alone
- About Face poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- To the Muse poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Those Born In Obscure Times poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Those Born In Obscure Times poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Twelve poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Stranger poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Faithless Shadows. poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Death of Grandfather poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Snowy Spring Is Raging Mad poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Scythians poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Street Circus poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- The Snowy Spring Is Raging Mad poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- On the Field of Kulicovo poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- I Wait For You… poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- I Prefer the Gorgeous Freedom poem – Aleksandr Blok 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.