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:
- Кондратий Рылеев – Не вчера ли в хороводе
- five moons for earth by Raj Arumugam
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1791 by William Cowper
- Behold, the grave of a wicked man by Stephen Crane
- Ballade Of The Bookworm poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Gratitudes Of A Dozen Roses
- The Weaver by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Life by Sir Walter Raleigh
- An Autumn Reverie by William Topaz McGonagall
- A Hundred Years Hence by Rabindranath Tagore
- Veronica’s Napkin by William Butler Yeats
- The Lie by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Robert Burns: Winter: A Dirge:
- The (REAL) Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare by Ross D Tyler
- The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
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
- June Dreams, In January by Sidney Lanier
- Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier
- Ireland. by Sidney Lanier
- In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier
- In Absence. by Sidney Lanier
- Hymns Of The Marshes. by Sidney Lanier
- From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier
- Corn by Sidney Lanier
- Control by Sidney Lanier
- Clover by Sidney Lanier
- Barnacles by Sidney Lanier
- Baby Charley. by Sidney Lanier
- At First. To Charlotte Cushman. by Sidney Lanier
- An Evening Song. by Sidney Lanier
- Acknowledgment. by Sidney Lanier
- A Sunrise Song. by Sidney Lanier
- A Song Of The Future. by Sidney Lanier
- A Song Of Eternity In Time by Sidney Lanier
- A Sea-Shore Grave. To M. J. L. by Sidney Lanier
- A Florida Sunday. by Sidney Lanier
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.