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:
- Robert Burns: Raging Fortune:
- Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
- The Summons poem – Ezra Pound poems
- When Smoke Stood Up From Ludlow poem – A. E. Housman
- A Banquet Song
- Владимир Маяковский – Непобедимое оружие
- Pheasant by Sylvia Plath
- Юлиан Анисимов – Весенний дождь
- Владимир Маяковский – Совет Труда и Обороны сделал ассигнование миллионное… ( Главполитпросвет №64)
- Love Poem by Aditya Kumar
- Владимир Маяковский – Шляпами панов не забить… (РОСТА №222)
- Does Our Spirit Fly Away by Mary Etta Metcalf
- I Will Sing You One-O by Robert Frost
- Yin and Yang by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- On Certain Ladies poem – Alexander Pope
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
- Up The Line by Will McKendree Carleton
- Uncle Sammy by Will McKendree Carleton
- The New Church Organ by Will McKendree Carleton
- The Littlle Black-Eyed Rebel by Will McKendree Carleton
- The House Where We Were Wed by Will McKendree Carleton
- The Fading Flower by Will McKendree Carleton
- The Editor’s Guests by Will McKendree Carleton
- The Country Doctor by Will McKendree Carleton
- Thanksgiving Day by Will McKendree Carleton
- Over The Hill From The Poor-House by Will McKendree Carleton
- Our Army Of The Dead by Will McKendree Carleton
- One And Two by Will McKendree Carleton
- Johnny Rich by Will McKendree Carleton
- Autumn Days by Will McKendree Carleton
- Apple-Blossoms by Will McKendree Carleton
- Two Songs Of Advent by Yvor Winters
- On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters
- Dark spring by Yvor Winters
- Where My Sight Goes by Yvor Winters
- To Emily Dickinson by Yvor Winters
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.