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:
- Black magic by Mrunmayi Mandan
- On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters
- Who Goes With Fergus? by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Высоцкий – В этом доме большом раньше пьянка была
- Two Views Of Withens by Sylvia Plath
- “From the man whom I love, though my heart I disguise,” by Tobias Smollett
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Get together by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Robert Burns: Phillis The Queen O’ The Fair:
- Fever 103° by Sylvia Plath
- Full Moon by Walter de la Mare
- Calais, August 15, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Apology poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Love That Goes A-Begging by Sara Teasdale
- St. Francis of Assisi by Vachel Lindsay
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
- The Rowing Song by Roald Dahl
- The Crocodile by Roald Dahl
- St Ives by Roald Dahl
- Violet Beauregarde… by Roald Dahl
- “Veruca Salt…” by Roald Dahl
- My teacher wasn’t half as nice as yours seems to be by Roald Dahl
- “Mike Teavee…” by Roald Dahl
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl
- I’ve Got a Golden Ticket by Roald Dahl
- I had a little nut-tree, by Roald Dahl
- Hot and Cold by Roald Dahl
- “Goldie Pinklesweet…” by Roald Dahl
- Excerpt – “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by Roald Dahl
- Augustus Gloop… by Roald Dahl
- Of Myself – the Essay and Poems on Myself by Abraham Cowley
- Poets
- On the Danger of Procrastination by Abraham Cowley
- ON THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE AND UNCERTAINTY OF RICHES by Abraham Cowley
- CLAUDIAN’S OLD MAN OF VERONA by Abraham Cowley
- THE DANGERS OF AN HONEST MAN IN MUCH COMPANY by Abraham Cowley
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.