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:
- Альфред Теннисон – Смерть Старого Года
- A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old by William Butler Yeats
- Hope And Riders
- After-Thought by William Wordsworth
- Олег Григорьев – Футбол
- Invocation To The Earth, February 1816 by William Wordsworth
- Snow & Ice by Quincy Troupe
- Алишер Навои – Чудесные свершения середины жизни
- Angel Of Christmas Love Shining Bright
- St. Roach by Muriel Rukeyser
- Sonnet Viii
- Hortus poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Владимир Ладыженский – Христос Воскрес, скворцы поют
- The Years by Sara Teasdale
- Caught in a Net by Vachel Lindsay
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
- A Prayer For Old Age by William Butler Yeats
- A Prayer For My Son by William Butler Yeats
- A Nativity by William Butler Yeats
- A Memory Of Youth by William Butler Yeats
- A Meditation In Time Of War by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: VIII. Summer And Spring by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: VII. The Friends Of His Youth by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: VI. His Memories by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: V. The Empty Cup by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: IV. The Death Of The Hare by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: II. Human Dignity by William Butler Yeats
- A Man Young And Old: I. First Love by William Butler Yeats
- A Last Confession by William Butler Yeats
- A Friend’s Illness by William Butler Yeats
- A First Confession by William Butler Yeats
- A Faery Song by William Butler Yeats
- A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety by William Butler Yeats
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.