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:
- Robert Burns: Thomson’s Edward and Eleanora.:
- Владимир Высоцкий – Ох, где был я вчера
- Алексей Толстой – То было раннею весной
- Why?
- World Below the Brine, The. by Walt Whitman
- A Prayer For Old Age by William Butler Yeats
- When the universe speaks by Preeth Nambiar
- In A Restaurant by Sara Teasdale
- New Year On Dartmoor by Sylvia Plath
- Шекспир – Я лью потоки горьких слез – Сонет 44
- it flows by Raj Arumugam
- Федор Сологуб – Сладко мечтается мне
- The Sea And the Hills by Rudyard Kipling
- Marriage Thoughts By Morsellin Khan
- Robert Burns: The Lover’s Morning Salute To His Mistress:
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
- Streets Of Teal by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shining Armour by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shallow Valley by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Shadow Overhead by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Rusty Folks by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Quest for Thee by Vanessa Perkins
- Precious Pearl by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Power Of Love by Valentine Mbagu
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Mauve Mittens by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Innocent Steps by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Vaishnavi Prakash – Vaishnavi Prakash
- Gimmick In A Geisha by Vaishnavi Prakash
- False Intimacy by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Eternal Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Esteemed Bliss by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Empty Pages by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Daffodil Dreams by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Curse of Righteousness by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Crawling At Sea by Vaishnavi Prakash
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.