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:
- Silver Wedding by Vernon Scannell
- Does Our Spirit Fly Away by Mary Etta Metcalf
- The Vision Of Cassandra
- Зинаида Александрова – Песня моряков
- The Princess In The Tower by Sara Teasdale
- Now List to my Morning’s Romanza. by Walt Whitman
- Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all by William Shakespeare
- Long I Thought that Knowledge. by Walt Whitman
- Омар Хайям – Нет ни рая, ни ада, о сердце моё
- Thoughts in a Garden poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Олег Бундур – Неправильный кот
- The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
- English Poetry. William Barnes. Second Collection. The Heäre. Уильям Барнс.
- Ольга Седакова – В незапамятных зимах
- Нина Воронель – Игарка
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
- At the Galleria Shopping Mall by Tony Hoagland
- America by Tony Hoagland
- A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland
- To His Mistress In Absence by Torquato Tasso
- “What weeping, or what dewfall,” by Torquato Tasso
- “Once we were happy” by Torquato Tasso
- “O you, far colder, whiter” by Torquato Tasso
- “Life of my life, you seem to me” by Torquato Tasso
- “Hedge, that divides the lovely” by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 07 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 06 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 04 – part 01 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 04 by Torquato Tasso
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 03 – part 03 by Torquato Tasso
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.