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:
- Cabbage
- I’ve Lived To See Desire Vanish poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher by Walter Savage Landor
- Wisdom by Siegfried Sassoon
- Николай Языков – А. И. Готовцевой (Влюблен я, дева-красота)
- I shall not be a shame by Torm Gardson
- Степан Щипачев – Шар земной
- Haiku by Robby Charters
- Олег Бундур – Железное здоровье
- Гавриил Державин – На выздоровление мецената
- Le Monocle de Mon Oncle by Wallace Stevens
- Sonnet CLIII by William Shakespeare
- Юнна Мориц – Трудно светиться и петь не легко
- Олег Чупров – Душа
- Emperors And Kings, How Oft Have Temples Rung by William Wordsworth
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.