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:
- On His Eightieth Birthday by Walter Savage Landor
- Hyperion. Book II poem – John Keats poems
- The Neighbor by Marge Piercy
- Омар Хайям – Красой затмила ты Китая дочерей
- To a Commencement of Scoundrels by Samuel Hazo
- Minneapolipstick by Rachel McKibbens
- Николай Заболоцкий – На закате
- Владимир Степанов – Енот (Буква Е)
- After Midnight by Walid Saba
- The Oak poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Владимир Британишский – Ностальгия
- Weathering poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Корнилов – Неподвижность
- A Song Of Autumn
- Sleep Did Come Wi’ The Dew by William Barnes
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
- In Every Language by Rifat Ilgaz
- I’m Sexy and I Know It by Aiyah De Torres
- I Write a Poem by Aiyah De Torres
- Girl Child – An Alternate Reality by Rekha Seshadri
- Elusive Lover by Renu Ayyar
- Crows and Hawks by Richard Schiffman
- Clever Stalk by Richard Schiffman
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- Buddha at Kamakura by Rudyard Kipling
- Beyond Darkness And Despair by Renu Ayyar
- Before you go a little way prospecting by T. Wignesan
- Are You a Thinking Man? by Rifat Ilgaz
- A Lost Friend, I Never Had by Renu Ayyar
- A Goddess by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Vacation by Rita Dove
- Tonight she remembers by Rita Odessa Villaruel
- There Came a Soul by Rita Dove
- The Emotion Line by Rita Odessa Villaruel
- The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove
- The Secret Garden by Rita Dove
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.