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:
- Николай Заболоцкий – Сентябрь
- Youth And Age by William Butler Yeats
- Change of Climate by Michael S Wilson
- Song Of The Peri
- Олег Бундур – Кулинар
- A Farmhouse Dirge poem – Alfred Austin
- I Have A Friend I Can Proudly Say by Miraj Patel
- A Case Of Murder by Vernon Scannell
- Robert Burns: Duncan Davison :
- Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Green Stream. by Wang Wei
- Robert Burns: Farewell To Eliza:
- Her Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Николай Языков – Переезд через приморские Альпы
- The Voice of Woman by Shahida Latif
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
- Year O’ year by Nikunj Sharma
- The Woman From The Archive by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Where we fall by Osman cisse Hanif
- When the Walls Were White by Noele Martin
- When I live with fancy’ by Nithin Purple
- When Trust Fails… by Olaniyi Beloved Abimbola
- The Weavers by Nijole Miliauskaite
- The Weaver by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Vagina Envy by Nin Andrews
- Untitled #13 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Untitled #12 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Untitled #11 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Untitled #10 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Untitled #1 by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Two sparrows and my heart by Nizar Sartawi
- Turtledove of the Green Land – Dedicated to Tunisian poet, Huda Hajji by Nizar Sartawi
- To Spirituality by Nithin Purple
- To Melancholy- Written On An intensely agitated Day by Nithin Purple
- To Imagination by Nithin Purple
- To Her Beauty by Nithin Purple
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.