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:
- The Wold Waggon by William Barnes
- Maudlin by Sylvia Plath
- Protest By Zahir U Din
- Ars Poetica
- Confession (to Alina Osipova, 1826) poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Fake Identity by Roberto Cocina
- Zen-moment by Sunil Sharma
- Ольга Берггольц – Я все оставляю тебе при уходе
- On The Author Of Letters On Literature by William Cowper
- The Lent Lily by A. E. Housman
- The Girt Wold House O’ Mossy Stwone by William Barnes
- St. Francis of Assisi by Vachel Lindsay
- Even if I don’t hear your voice, I know by Vinko Kalinic
- On a certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope
- The Recall by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Like Truthless Dreams, So Are My Joys Expired by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Life by Sir Walter Raleigh
- His Pilgrimage by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Her Reply by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Farewell to the Court by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Epitaph by Sir Walter Raleigh
- A Literature Lesson. Sir Patrick Spens in the Eighteenth Century Manner by Sir Walter Raleigh
- A Farewell to False Love by Sir Walter Raleigh
- On Catullus by Walter Savage Landor
- Of Clementina by Walter Savage Landor
- Corinna, from Athens, to Tanagra by Walter Savage Landor
- Ianthe! You are Call’d to Cross the Sea by Walter Savage Landor
- Mother, I cannot mind my Wheel by Walter Savage Landor
- Ianthe by Walter Savage Landor
- Child of a Day by Walter Savage Landor
- Late Leaves by Walter Savage Landor
- One Lovely Name by Walter Savage Landor
- On An Eclipse Of The Moon by Walter Savage Landor
- Mild is the Parting Year by Walter Savage Landor
- I Entreat You, Alfred Tennyson by Walter Savage Landor
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.