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:
- He’s on the porch by Yosa Buson
- Владимир Маяковский – Весна (Город зимнее снял)
- A Passing Glimpse by Robert Frost
- Ash-Boughs poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- News For The Delphic Oracle by William Butler Yeats
- The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ballade Of His Books poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Михаил Кузмин – В саду
- Федор Сологуб – Либава, Либава, товарная душа
- Live Baits by Satish Verma
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. My Room. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- Николай Глазков – Почему я отказался от самолёта
- Sonnet 21 poem – John Milton poems
- in_between_the_strophes.html
- A Dog’s Grave by Winifred Mary Letts
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
- Call It Music by Philip Levine
- Black Stone On Top Of Nothing by Philip Levine
- Bitterness by Philip Levine
- Berenda Slough by Philip Levine
- Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine
- At Bessemer by Philip Levine
- Any Night by Philip Levine
- Another Song by Philip Levine
- Animals Are Passing From Our Lives by Philip Levine
- An Abandoned Factory, Detroit by Philip Levine
- Among Children by Philip Levine
- A Woman Waking by Philip Levine
- A Theory Of Prosody by Philip Levine
- A Sleepless Night by Philip Levine
- Sonnet III: With how sad steps by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sonnet II: Not At First Sight by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sonnet I: Loving In Truth by Sir Philip Sidney
- Song from Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
- Song by Sir Philip Sidney
- Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney
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.