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:
- Meditation With Feet
- Владимир Британишский – Багульник, ельник, изволоки, взгорья
- Salut au Monde. by Walt Whitman
- The Time I Like Best by Roger McGough
- Flowers By The Sea by William Carlos Williams
- Against Hope
- To Dorothy Wellesley by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ореланна
- Шекспир – Люби другого – Сонет 139
- On a Tree Fallen Across the Road by Robert Frost
- To a friend by Vinko Kalinić
- Paradise Regained: The Second Book poem – John Milton poems
- To a Historian. by Walt Whitman
- Parallel Lies by Vaishnavi Prakash
- To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent poem – John Keats poems
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
- The Leaders Of The Crowd by William Butler Yeats
- The Lamentation Of The Old Pensioner by William Butler Yeats
- The Lake Isle Of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats
- The Lady’s Third Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Lady’s Second Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Lady’s First Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Indian Upon God by William Butler Yeats
- The Indian To His Love by William Butler Yeats
- The Hour Before Dawn by William Butler Yeats
- To A Child Dancing In The Wind by William Butler Yeats
- Three Songs To The One Burden by William Butler Yeats
- These Are The Clouds by William Butler Yeats
- The Withering Of The Boughs by William Butler Yeats
- The Wheel by William Butler Yeats
- The Wanderings of Oisin: Book II by William Butler Yeats
- The Wanderings of Oisin: Book I by William Butler Yeats
- The Travail Of Passion by William Butler Yeats
- The Three Monuments by William Butler Yeats
- The Three Beggars by William Butler Yeats
- The Statues 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.