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:
- Василий Жуковский – Герой
- Her Praise by William Butler Yeats
- The Exeter Road poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Николай Заболоцкий – Небесная Севилья
- On A Bath, By Plato by William Cowper
- The Looking-Glass. : on Mrs. Pulteney poem – Alexander Pope
- Virgin In A Tree by Sylvia Plath
- The True Lover poem – A. E. Housman
- Олег Григорьев – Был праздник с весельем и танцами
- A Sleepless Night poem – Alfred Austin
- In The Bus That Is Frantically Rushing From Cairo To Port Said
- Morning Poem #43 by Wanda Phipps
- Ballad on Mr. Heron’s Election—No. 3 by Robert Burns
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
- Анатолий Жигулин – Ночная смена
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
- Total Recount by Pamela Griffiths
- To a Beloved Child by Patrick Pearse
- The Uses of the Eye by Paul Blackburn
- The Undeniable Pressure of Existence by Patricia Fargnoli
- The Triumph Of Achilles by Paul Celan
- The Sea and the Shadow by Paul Blackburn
- The Rising and Falling of Trees by Patricia Fargnoli
- The One Night Stand : An Approach to the Bridge by Paul Blackburn
- The Mother by Patrick Pearse
- The Choice of Trees by P.J.Reed
- The Café Filtre by Paul Blackburn
- The Blue Guitar by P. K. Page
- That Light by Paul Hostovsky
- Teenager by Patrick Connors
- Teasing by Pamela Griffiths
- Summon Me by Walid Saba
- Stony Grey Soil by Patrick Kavanagh
- Spring Thing by Paul Blackburn
- Single Traveller by P. K. Page
- Shancoduff by Patrick Kavanagh
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.