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:
- Flirting by Satish Verma
- Senec. Traged. Ex Thyeste Chor.2 poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Olney Hymn 45: The Happy Change by William Cowper
- Heart of God by Vachel Lindsay
- Taita Falcon above the Zambezi by Tom Mukasa
- The Dead Woman by Pablo Neruda, La Muerta
- Female ghost in the moonlight by Raj Arumugam
- Written In A Quarrel by William Cowper
- The Basset-Table : An Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope
- Star-Gazers by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Тексты для издательства “Сегодняшний лубок” (Плакаты)
- Primrose Rose by Rainbow Reed
- Mark The Concentrated Hazels That Enclose by William Wordsworth
- In Measures by Shaunna Harper
- Владимир Маяковский – Стихи из предсмертной записки
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
- Kinetic Poem 2 by Roger McGough
- Jazz by Roland Bastien
- Goodbat Nightman by Roger McGough
- First Day at School by Roger McGough
- Did you call me Love by Rohini bhatia singh
- Cauls of Haw by Roland Bastien
- Cake by Roger McGough
- Beguiling by Roger McGough
- You Look Up Pictures of Icelandic Ponies by Ruth Madievsky
- Words Of Advice by Ronald G. Auguste
- Who is the Bogeyman? by Ross D Tyler
- Wherever You Go, There You Are by Ryssel Guzman
- We Miss You So Much by Ronald G. Auguste
- Trial by Ruth Padel
- To A Wife, On Mother’s Day by Ronald G. Auguste
- Tiger Drinking at Forest Pool by Ruth Padel
- Threads of Gold by Ronald G. Auguste
- Thoughts by Ronald G. Auguste
- The useless counsellor by Ross D Tyler
- The tragic tale of Bobby Magee by Ross D Tyler
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.