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:
- Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Ступкин – Тоска
- Gimmick In A Geisha by Vaishnavi Prakash
- The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore
- An English Breeze by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Psalm 08 poem – John Milton poems
- I Have Loved Hours At Sea by Sara Teasdale
- To the Pay Toilet by Marge Piercy
- Dusk In War Time by Sara Teasdale
- To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time by William Butler Yeats
- In Memoriam
- Николай Гумилев – Ключ в лесу
- “I Know The Stars” by Sara Teasdale
- Олег Сердобольский – Алмазная снежинка
- Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear by William Shakespeare
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
- An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith
- Absolute Divine by Nithin Purple
- A Sculptor’s Vow by Nikhil Srinivas
- A woman’s desire by Oriada Dajko
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Poetic Abbreviations, Poetry Abbreviations
- I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin
- How Distant by Philip Larkin
- Home Is So Sad by Philip Larkin
- Homage To A Government by Philip Larkin
- High Windows by Philip Larkin
- He Hears That His Beloved Has Become Engaged by Philip Larkin
- Grief by Philip Larkin
- Going by Philip Larkin
- Friday Night At The Royal Station Hotel by Philip Larkin
- For Sidney Bechet by Philip Larkin
- First Sight by Philip Larkin
- Far Out by Philip Larkin
- Faith Healing by Philip Larkin
- Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin
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.