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:
- Hope by Swaraj Prasad
- Specimen Of An Induction To A Poem poem – John Keats poems
- Passage to India. by Walt Whitman
- Winter – The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne poem – Alexander Pope
- Clarence by Shel Silverstein
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 56. Томас Мур.
- Федор Сологуб – В моих мечтах такое постоянство
- Robert Burns: On Politics:
- Владимир Маяковский – Письмо Татьяне Яковлевой
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “Irish Melodies”. 85. Oh For the Swords of Former Time. Томас Мур.
- Жан де Лафонтен – Шершни и Пчелы
- Robert Burns: Wandering Willie: Revised Version
- Life
- Sobbing of The Bells, The. by Walt Whitman
- Джон Мильтон – О своей слепоте
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
- Transient
- To The Serpent
- To The Nameless Soldier
- The Woman And The Flame
- The Wolf039s Postcript To 039little Red Riding Hood039
- The Riddle
- The Queen
- The Poisoned Present
- The Markets Are Down 2 Amp A Quarter
- The Maharishi And The Baby
- The Immigrant
- The Fallen House
- The Poetry That Is Life
- Take My Hands
- Tablet
- Stroll In A Particle
- Stones
- Spanish Banks
- Somber Song
- Poem65
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.