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:
- Electra On Azalea Path by Sylvia Plath
- Dionysus poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- An Epitaph On Sr John Walter, Lord Cheife Baron by William Strode
- Ballade Of Dead Ladies poem – Andrew Lang poems
- A Hymn to Love by Robert Herrick
- Юнна Мориц – За невлюбленными людьми
- Николай Карамзин – К самому себе
- Алексей Плещеев – Мною злых и глупых шуток
- For P’ei Ti by Wang Wei
- I know The Music (unfinished) by Wilfred Owen
- The Irish Unionist’s farewell to Greta Hellastrom in 1922 poem – John Betjeman poems
- The Hollow Woak by William Barnes
- Disconnect by Snowdon King
- At Ease by Walter de la Mare
- Олег Бундур – Скука
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 am the earthworm, Lord of the Underworld by Raj Arumugam
- I am content here by Raj Arumugam
- How I saved Planet Earth by Raj Arumugam
- how far are you? by Raj Arumugam
- how did poetry begin? by Raj Arumugam
- Hey birds by Raj Arumugam
- Head of a Smiling Young Woman in Three-Quarter View by Raj Arumugam
- gum tree loved by the sky by Raj Arumugam
- good bye, my sweet angel by Raj Arumugam
- four legs good, two legs badOwl Hoots and Grasshopper Sings by Raj Arumugam
- four legs good, two legs bad by Raj Arumugam
- five moons for earth by Raj Arumugam
- Female ghost in the moonlight by Raj Arumugam
- emotional bond by Raj Arumugam
- doughnuts for sale by Raj Arumugam
- different lovers by Raj Arumugam
- did you die, Ophelia? by Raj Arumugam
- dear owl, forlorn like King Lear by Raj Arumugam
- dear moon, you will understand by Raj Arumugam
- days of quiet 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.