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:
- Lucky by Thomas Lux
- To Beatrice Stuart–Wortley Ætat poem – Alfred Austin
- Hope
- Cino poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Олег Григорьев – Пляж давно опустел
- Olney Hymn 5: Jehovah-Shalom: The Lord Send Peace by William Cowper
- The Gate by Marie Howe
- The White Cliffs
- Олег Чупров – Вечером поздним потянет к Печоре
- Butterfly by Ramesh Anand
- Robert Burns: Complimentary Versicles To Jessie Lewars: On Her Recovery
- Happiness poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Felix Randal poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Спросили раз меня: “Вы любите ли НЭП?”
- Alba poem – Ezra Pound poems
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
- Mother’s Death 1981 by Michael S Wilson
- Money, for a Decent Human Life without You by Mike Yuan
- Migration of the Mind by Mike Yuan
- Mid-Autumn Moon by Mike Yuan
- Meeting with Te Rauparaha by Michael O’Leary
- Matrimony by Mike Yuan
- March on, Yes! by Miles
- Make Love and War by Michael O’Leary
- Ma Wonders by Miraj Patel
- Lullaby of the Onion by Miguel Hernandez
- Live With Me On Earth Under the Invisible Daylight Moon by Milton Acorn
- Life of Paradoxes by Mike Yuan
- Languaculture by Mike Yuan
- Key and Knife (Two Haiku) by Mike Yuan
- (Inner Tube) by Michael Ondaatje
- In the Forest of Life by Mike Yuan
- If You Ask Me by Miraj Patel
- If I Got You by Miraj Patel
- I Wish This Lovely Time Never Ends by Miraj Patel
- I sink as I sail magnificently by Michael Nikoletseas
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.