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 Edges
- The Spring-Time, O The Spring–Time poem – Alfred Austin
- Awakening by mike yuan
- Untitled XXVI by Yunus Emre
- Blackberrying by Sylvia Plath
- Федор Сологуб – В лунном озарении
- Debt by Sara Teasdale
- Old Man Poet by Raj Arumugam
- Sonnet 08
- Sonnet 57: Being your slave, what should I do but tend by William Shakespeare
- Can You See The Pride In The Panther? by Tupac Shakur
- Robert Burns: Handsome Nell:
- As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На берегу
- The Sequel to a Reminiscence poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
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
- A Man, They Made a God by Walid Saba
- A Kind of Life by Stanley Wilkin
- A Gemini’s Hurt by Stephen Allen
- A Dogs Love Is a Never Ending Game by Stacey Chillemi
- A Carta/The Letter by Soaroir de Campos
- I stood musing in a black world by Stephen Crane
- I saw a man pursuing the horizon by Stephen Crane
- I met a seer by Stephen Crane
- I looked here by Stephen Crane
- I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night, by Stephen Crane
- God lay dead in heaven by Stephen Crane
- God fashioned the ship of the world carefully. by Stephen Crane
- Friend, your white beard sweeps the ground by Stephen Crane
- Forth went the candid man by Stephen Crane
- Each small gleam was a voice, by Stephen Crane
- A man went before a strange God by Stephen Crane
- A man toiled on a burning road by Stephen Crane
- A man saw a ball of gold in the sky by Stephen Crane
- A man said to the universe: by Stephen Crane
- A man feared that he might find an assassin by Stephen Crane
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.