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:
- Владимир Корнилов – Платформа 126-го км
- The time has come for us to become madmen in your chain by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Where Are You
- The Prioress’s Tale [from Chaucer] by William Wordsworth
- Avec seulement du noir by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Waly, Waly poem – Andrew Lang poems
- love growing by Raj Arumugam
- Sonnet Ix
- Epitaph On Fop, A Dog Belonging To Lady Throckmorton by William Cowper
- In Cabin’d Ships at Sea. by Walt Whitman
- The Treasure by Sara Teasdale
- Ballades II – Of The Book-Hunter poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Николай Заболоцкий – Испытание воли
- Pan with Us by Robert Frost
- Tale of the Pope and of His Workman Balda
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
- My Eyes in the Time of Apparition by Rachel McKibbens
- Mrs. Mouse has glasses by R. L. KARLOWSKY
- Mother by Sachin Yadav (Pen Name: Rahul Nachhiketa)
- Most Precious by R. L. Karlowsky
- Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens
- Meditation by Radames Antonio Cruz
- Manipulation by Radames Antonio Cruz
- intertwined by rachel wright
- I Hardly Remember by Rafael Guillen
- Homecoming of Love on the Sands by Rafael Alberti
- Hex by Rachel McKibbens
- From Marinero en tierra by Rafael Alberti
- EVENING… by R.M. Engelhardt
- El Cafetal by Rafael Guillen
- Across the Street from the Whitmore Home for Girls, 1949 by Rachel McKibbens
- zen: a very short history by Raj Arumugam
- you witness my dying by Raj Arumugam
- you say you love the earth by Raj Arumugam
- you are there moon by Raj Arumugam
- word of God by Raj Arumugam
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.