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:
- Sonet 36 by William Alexander
- Алексей Толстой – Смеркалось, жаркий день бледнел неуловимо
- A Little Memory poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- An Acre Of Grass by William Butler Yeats
- Epigram to Miss Jean Scott by Robert Burns
- Belts by Rudyard Kipling
- My Dear Old Mother by Walter William Safar
- Robert Burns: The Vision:
- A Song of an Autumn Night. by Wang Wei
- Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston, South Carolina poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Time’s Defence poem – Alfred Austin
- Гавриил Державин – Афинейскому витязю
- Encounter In The Chestnut Avenue by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Sleep Did Come Wi’ The Dew by William Barnes
- Autumn poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
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
- Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Fire’s Reflection by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Black Cat by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Duino Elegies: The First Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Archaic Torso Of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Childhood by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Falling Stars by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Autumn Day by Rainer Maria Rilke
- from The Tenth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- For Hans Carossa by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Evening Love Song by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Evening by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Death by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Blank Joy by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Along The Sun-Drenched Roadside by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Again And Again, However We Know The Landscape Of Love by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Adam by Rainer Maria Rilke
- A Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke
- “Wonkavite…” by Roald Dahl
- Violet Beauregarde… by Roald Dahl
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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.