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:
- The Campera, the Foreigner y el Novio by Marjorie Kanter
- Memories of West Street and Lepke by Robert Lowell
- Poll’s Jack-Daw by William Barnes
- Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill by William Shakespeare
- Robert Burns: Pretty Peg:
- Яков Полонский – Памяти В. М. Гаршина
- June poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: The Cotter’s Saturday Night: Inscribed to R. Aiken, Esq., of Ayr.
- John Milton As Author of Pornographic Verse: An Extempore Upon a Faggot
- The Ballad Of Father O’Hart by William Butler Yeats
- To Mr. Thomas Southern, on his Birth-Day poem – Alexander Pope
- A Code of Morals by Rudyard Kipling
- Robert Burns: Auld Lang Syne:
- Laughter In The Senate by Sidney Lanier
- What the Ghost of the Gambler Said 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
- Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope House by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Major Logan by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Rankine by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Maxwell, Esq., of Terraughty by Robert Burns
- Epistle to John Goldie, in Kilmarnock by Robert Burns
- Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner by Robert Burns
- Epistle to James Smith by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Hugh Parker by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Dr. Blacklock by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Davie, A Brother Poet by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Colonel de Peyster by Robert Burns
- Epistle to a Young Friend by Robert Burns
- Epistle on J. Lapraik by Robert Burns
- Epistle from Esopus to Maria by Robert Burns
- Epigrams against the Earl of Galloway by Robert Burns
- Epigram to Miss Jean Scott by Robert Burns
- Epigram to Miss Ainslie in Church by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The True Loyal Natives by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The Toad-eater by Robert Burns
- Epigram—The Raptures of Folly 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.