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:
- Spring – The First Pastoral ; or Damon poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Зинаида Александрова – Подснежник
- Copla Suelta: The One and the Same Dream by T. Wignesan
- In Cabin’d Ships at Sea. by Walt Whitman
- Валерий Брюсов – После сенокоса
- Memories of West Street and Lepke by Robert Lowell
- Dreams poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Country House poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The White Road Up Athirt The Hill by William Barnes
- Pejar Creek by Mary Gilmore
- Sleep and Death by William Wycherley
- Sonnet To Henry Cowper, Esq. by William Cowper
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мао Цзедун большой шалун
- The Tree and the Marble by Mike Yuan
- My Own Heart Let Me Have More Have Pity On; Let poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
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
- I’ll go and be a Sodger by Robert Burns
- Halloween by Robert Burns
- Green Grow The Rashes by Robert Burns
- Fragment on Sensibility by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—The Night was Still by Robert Burns
- Fragment of Song—“My Jean!” by Robert Burns
- Fragment—Her Flwoing Locks by Robert Burns
- For a’ that and a’ that by Robert Burns
- Fickle Fortune: A Fragment by Robert Burns
- Fareweel To A’Our Scottish Fame by Robert Burns
- Extempore Reply to an Invitation by Robert Burns
- Extempore on some commemorations of Thomson by Robert Burns
- Extempore in the Court of Session by Robert Burns
- Extemporaneous Effusion on being appointed to an Excise Division by Robert Burns
- Esteem for Chloris by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on Wm. Graham, Esq., of Mossknowe by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Muir by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on William Hood, Senior by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on “Wee Johnnie” by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on the same by Robert Burns
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.