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:
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я не для ангелов и рая
- Sonnet CXXVII by William Shakespeare
- Death of the Legend by Timileyin Gabriel Olajuwon
- Epigram on Andrew Turner by Robert Burns
- To Eva Descending The Stair by Sylvia Plath
- Наум Коржавин – Никакой истерики
- Break of Day by Siegfried Sassoon
- Nearly A Valediction by Marilyn Hacker
- The Aisne
- Note to Mr. Renton of Lamerton by Robert Burns
- Untitled X by Yunus Emre
- Валерий Брюсов – Июль 1908
- Владимир Британишский – Этот вечер
- Watercolor Of Grantchester Meadows by Sylvia Plath
- La Figlia che Piange by T. S. Eliot
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
- Arms and the Man by Siegfried Sassoon
- Arcady Unheeding by Siegfried Sassoon
- Ancient History by Siegfried Sassoon
- Ancestors by Siegfried Sassoon
- An Old French Poet by Siegfried Sassoon
- Alone by Siegfried Sassoon
- Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon
- Absolution by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Working Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Whispered Tale by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Wanderer by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Subaltern by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Poplar and the Moon by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Mystic As Soldier by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Letter Home by Siegfried Sassoon
- A Child’s Prayer by Siegfried Sassoon
- Night Launch by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- Long For This World by Sophie Hannah
- LIGHT ECHOES by Sonya Ki Tomlinson
- Life Brings Me to this Journey. by Stephen Sweitzer
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.