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:
- Robert Burns: The Tear-Drop:
- The Happy Days When I Wer Young by William Barnes
- A Winter Ride poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Baldovan by William Topaz McGonagall
- Владимир Корнилов – Чтение
- Владимир Маяковский – Стихотворение о проданной телятине
- Nestling by Mark R Slaughter
- Moment’s Indulgence by Rabindranath Tagore
- Don’t Ceäre by William Barnes
- Федор Сологуб – Всё зеленее и светлее
- A Shropshire Lad poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
- Стефан Малларме – Гробница Эдгара По
- Private Property poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чёрный цвет
- A Dogs Love Is a Never Ending Game by Stacey Chillemi
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
- Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost
- Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
- Evening in a Sugar Orchard by Robert Frost
- Dust of Snow by Robert Frost
- Dust in the Eyes by Robert Frost
- Devotion by Robert Frost
- Design by Robert Frost
- Desert Places by Robert Frost
- Come In by Robert Frost
- Christmas Trees by Robert Frost
- But Outer Space by Robert Frost
- Brown’s Descent by Robert Frost
- Bond and Free by Robert Frost
- Blue-Butterfly Day by Robert Frost
- Bereft by Robert Frost
- Atmosphere by Robert Frost
- Asking For Roses by Robert Frost
- An Old Man’s Winter Night by Robert Frost
- An Encounter by Robert Frost
- An Empty Threat by Robert Frost
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.