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:
- Eclogue:–The ‘Lotments by William Barnes
- Николай Языков – Две картины
- A Wasted Illness by Thomas Hardy
- Advice to the Ladies by William Somervile
- We’re Late by W H Auden
- Between Two Moments by Nizar Sartawi
- Sonnet Vii
- Sonnet 54: O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem by William Shakespeare
- Solitude: An Ode poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Lament For Culloden by Robert Burns
- Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only. by Walt Whitman
- Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore by William Shakespeare
- Books by Mark Olynyk
- Robert Burns: O Wat Ye Wha’s In Yon Town:
- Off Mesolongi poem – Alfred Austin
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
- Little Flute by Rabindranath Tagore
- Light by Rabindranath Tagore
- Let Me Not Forget by Rabindranath Tagore
- Leave This by Rabindranath Tagore
- Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore
- Journey Home by Rabindranath Tagore
- Innermost One by Rabindranath Tagore
- Give Me Strength by Rabindranath Tagore
- Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
- Free Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
- Farewell by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fairyland by Rabindranath Tagore
- Face To Face by Rabindranath Tagore
- Endless Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Dungeon by Rabindranath Tagore
- Distant Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Defamation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Colored Toys by Rabindranath Tagore
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.