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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Военно-морская любовь
- Ольга Седакова – Луг, юго-западный ветер
- A Visit to Yu’s Cave poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Глазков – Дождь
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: First Version
- Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Song of Medical Dick and Medical Davy by Oliver St. John Gogarty
- Now List to my Morning’s Romanza. by Walt Whitman
- E.P. Ode Pour L’election De Son Sepulchre poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Don’t know the answer by Vinko Kalinic
- The Bald-Pated Welshman and the Fly by William Somervile
- Ок Мельникова – Let it be
- Жан де Лафонтен – Скупой, потерявший свое богатство
- Spirituality of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gerard Manley Hopkins: a shepherd poet
- The Russian Fugitive 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
- Spain 1873–’74. by Walt Whitman
- Souvenirs of Democracy. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Universal. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Redwood-Tree. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Exposition. by Walt Whitman
- Song of the Broad-Axe. by Walt Whitman
- Song for All Seas, All Ships. by Walt Whitman
- Song at Sunset. by Walt Whitman
- Sometimes with One I Love. by Walt Whitman
- Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb. by Walt Whitman
- Sobbing of The Bells, The. by Walt Whitman
- So Long. by Walt Whitman
- So Far and So Far, and on Toward the End. by Walt Whitman
- The Sleepers by Walt Whitman
- Singer in the Prison, The. by Walt Whitman
- Sing of the Banner at Day-Break. by Walt Whitman
- Shut Not Your Doors, &c. by Walt Whitman
- Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman
- Scented Herbage of My Breast. by Walt Whitman
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.