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:
- I just love you by Raj Arumugam
- Bermudas poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Bubblin’ Up by Shel Silverstein
- Dans le Restaurant by T. S. Eliot
- A Late Walk by Robert Frost
- Яков Полонский – Письмо
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Break, Break, Break poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Roger Casement by William Butler Yeats
- Epigram on the same Laird’s Country Seat by Robert Burns
- Homecoming by Robert Lowell
- Владимир Маяковский – Типографы книги делают… (РОСТА №241)
- Владимир Корнилов – Жизнь
- Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney
- Виктор Кирюшин – Небеса набухшей парусиною
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
- Shall I like An Eternal World by Nithin Purple
- Sea World by Nin Andrews
- For Roman Polanski by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Red Roses by Nithin Purple
- Rainy Day by Nikhil Jain
- “Flight to the Moon” by Nina Gabriel
- First Look at Mom by Nikhil Jain
- The Poet’s Grave by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- When Lovely Woman Stoops To Folly by Oliver Goldsmith
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Picture by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Palms and Hearts by Olawuyi Mutiu
- Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Only in my dreams by Nina Gabriel
- On Fair Compassion by Nithin Purple
- On An Insight On Grecian Spring by Nithin Purple
- On An Arctic Winter by Nithin Purple
- On A World Of Imaginary & Freedom Dwell 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.