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:
- Sonnet: As From The Darkening Gloom A Silver Dove poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Тост
- How Distant by Philip Larkin
- The Mocking Bird by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Николай Карамзин – Тацит
- Epigram to Miss Jean Scott by Robert Burns
- I Make My bed Of Roses by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Владимир Британишский – Девятое января
- Яков Полонский – Блажен озлобленный поэт
- A Tale of Christmas Eve by William Topaz McGonagall
- The Wind At The Door by William Barnes
- The Palace of Art poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Room The Light and Golden Dust by Vishnu J Mohan
- Омар Хайям – Двести лет проживешь, или тысячу лет
- Robert Burns: Epistle To John Goldie, In Kilmarnock: Author Of The Gospel Recovered.
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
- Verdad Innegable by Victoria Luisa Mora Paoli
- Unsaid by Victoria Bukofske
- Unapologetic by Vikrant Sapkota
- To share by Victor A. Bueno M.
- Thrones In Heaven by Victoria Rose
- They Did Not Expect This by Vernon Scannell
- The Terrible Abstractions by Vernon Scannell
- The Men Who Wear My Clothes by Vernon Scannell
- The Loving Game by Vernon Scannell
- The Great War by Vernon Scannell
- Sunshine by Vin lan
- Snake eggs by Victor A. Bueno M.
- Silver Wedding by Vernon Scannell
- Schoolroom On A Wet Afternoon by Vernon Scannell
- They Did Not Expect This by Vernon Scannell
- Schoolroom On A Wet Afternoon by Vernon Scannell
- NOCHE MARINA by Victoria l.mora paoli
- NO SE VIVIR ASI by victoria luisa mora paoli
- Nettles by Vernon Scannell
- My Journey by Vikki Bonyata
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.