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:
- Вера Звягинцева – На смерть Есенина
- Art Therapy and Loss
- Михаил Кузмин – Все дни у Бога хороши
- Низами Гянджеви – Увы, на этой лужайке, где согнут страстью я,
- Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry by William Shakespeare
- Николай Карамзин – Луизе в день ее рождения 13 генваря, при вручении ей подарка
- I Have A Friend I Can Proudly Say by Miraj Patel
- Наум Коржавин – Есть у тех, кому нету места
- They Would Love To See Me Dead by Mahmoud Darwish
- Man In Black by Sylvia Plath
- Memorials Of A Tour In Scotland 1814 I. Suggested By A Beautiful Ruin Upon One Of The Islands Of Lo by William Wordsworth
- As Consequent, Etc. by Walt Whitman
- Омар Хайям – Кто битым жизнью был, тот большего добьется
- Иван Варавва – Жаворонок
- Not marble nor the guilded monuments (Sonnet 55) by William Shakespeare
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
- France, the 18th year of These States. by Walt Whitman
- For Him I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- Fast Anchor’d, Eternal, O Love. by Walt Whitman
- Facing West from California’s Shores. by Walt Whitman
- Faces. by Walt Whitman
- Excelsior. by Walt Whitman
- Europe, the 72d and 73d years of These States. by Walt Whitman
- Ethiopia Saluting the Colors. by Walt Whitman
- Elemental Drifts. by Walt Whitman
- Eidólons. by Walt Whitman
- Earth! my Likeness! by Walt Whitman
- Drum-Taps. by Walt Whitman
- Dresser, The. by Walt Whitman
- Dirge for Two Veterans. by Walt Whitman
- Despairing Cries. by Walt Whitman
- Delicate Cluster. by Walt Whitman
- Debris. by Walt Whitman
- Darest Thou Now, O Soul. by Walt Whitman
- Dalliance of the Eagles, The. by Walt Whitman
- Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. 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.