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:
- A Draught Of Sunshine poem – John Keats poems
- Recollection
- Think Of It Not, Sweet One poem – John Keats poems
- How Thought You That This Thing Could Captivate? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- emotional bond by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Корнилов – Трофейный фильм
- Conscripts by Siegfried Sassoon
- Robert Burns: The Weary Pund O’ Tow:
- Джон Мильтон – Псалом 1
- Sonnet 44: If the dull substance of my flesh were thought by William Shakespeare
- Ольга Ермолаева – Будет весь день долбить
- Яков Полонский – Не жди
- Sometimes by Vinko Kalinić
- Владимир Ступкин – Тоска
- O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
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
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.