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:
- Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour by Wallace Stevens
- Robert Burns: It Is Na, Jean, Thy Bonie Face:
- In the End by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Pollination by Pamela L. Laskin
- Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Высоцкий – Михаилу Шемякину под впечатлением от серии “Чрево”
- Robert Burns: Lines To A Gentleman,: Who had sent the Poet a Newspaper, and offered to continue it free of Expense.
- Song Of The Spinning Wheel by William Wordsworth
- Ballade Of Roulette poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Once Was A Singer For God Remembering Nekia
- Pax Britannica poem – Alfred Austin
- English Poetry. Charles Wesley. Hark! A Voice Divides the Sky. Чарльз Уэсли.
- Кондратий Рылеев – Н. М. Тевяшовой на предложение ее, дабы я написал стихи на Надежду
- Николай Заболоцкий – Баллада Жуковского
- Альфред де Мюссе – Прости
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
- Fragment – Wee Willie Gray (Song) by Robert Burns
- Farewell to Eliza (Song) by Robert Burns
- On a Scotch Bard, gone to the West Indies by Robert Burns
- Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots by Robert Burns
- Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn by Robert Burns
- Impromptu on Dumourier’s Desertion of the French Republican Army by Robert Burns
- Grace before and after Meat by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Robert Aiken by Robert Burns
- Epistle to a Young Friend by Robert Burns
- Address to Beelzebub by Robert Burns
- A Grace after Meat by Robert Burns
- A Dream by Robert Burns
- A Dedication to Gavin Hamilton by Robert Burns
- A Bard’s Epitaph by Robert Burns
- Zion by Rudyard Kipling
- You Must n’t Swim… by Rudyard Kipling
- With Scindia to Delphi by Rudyard Kipling
- Wilful Missing by Rudyard Kipling
- White Horses by Rudyard Kipling
- When the Great Ark by Rudyard Kipling
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.