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:
- If Truth In Hearts That Perish
- The Temple Dancing Girl
- Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston, South Carolina poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Иван Дмитриев – Старик и трое молодых
- Robert Burns: Verses On Captain Grose: Written on an Envelope, enclosing a Letter to Him.
- Epistle to Major Logan by Robert Burns
- Алишер Навои – О таинствах любви
- Омар Хайям – Будь все добро мое кирпич один, в кружало
- O Daedalus, Fly Away Home by Robert Hayden
- Эмиль Верхарн – Женщина в черном
- O My Lord, Your Dwelling Places Are Lovely poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Глазков – Поэтоград
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- My Modern Surrealist Mind by Shaunna Harper
- Lapr S Midi Dun Faune
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
- Leaving Albania by Morelle Smith
- Komori by T. Wignesan
- In torque by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- In the Blaze.. by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- I Salute You , O Women! by Ms Tabzeer Yaseen
- I like to let the word fly about by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- I a soul by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Hunger and Thirst by Muhammad Dawood Jan
- Here by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Haiku: The Bluebird and the Sky by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: March by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: January by Monty Gilmer
- Haiku: His Little Drum by Monty Gilmer
- Green Notes by Mrunmayi Mandan
- From the heart of your heart by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Forbidden Fruit by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Days and Nights by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Dark Room( qua vadis) by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Crush by Muhereza Louis
- Cinquain on Love: Touch by Monty Gilmer
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.