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:
- Miss Brown by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- Of Him I Love Day and Night. by Walt Whitman
- The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton
- Whispering In Wattle Boughs
- One of the Lives by W. S. Merwin
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Перевал
- Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity poem – John Milton poems
- Upon A Dying Lady by William Butler Yeats
- Tim Turpin by Thomas Hood
- Lord Roberts by Rudyard Kipling
- An American by Rudyard Kipling
- God’s Grandeur by Ted Hughes
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мы вращаем Землю
- Conquistador
- Alone, Looking for Blossoms Along the River by Tu Fu
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
- Cold Eyes by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Bridesmaid From Rio by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Bottles Of Sunshine by Vaishnavi Prakash
- Bliss Of Eternity by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A Stepmother’s Vain Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A Slice Of School by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A Palanquin Of Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- a deceving reflection by vanessa anderson
- The Tenants Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- The Judges Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- The Admirers Of The Little Box by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #6 by Vasko Popa
- Give Me Back My Rags #4 by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #7 by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #3 by Vasko Popa
- Far Within Us #2 by Vasko Popa
- Give Me Back My Rags #1 by Vasko Popa
- Between Games by Vasko Popa
- Anne Pennington by Vasko Popa
- Give Me Back My Rags #11 by Vasko Popa
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.