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:
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Best Poems
- Николай Тихонов – Длинный путь
- In Ithica poem – Andrew Lang poems
- When I Go Alone At Night by Rabindranath Tagore
- Николай Гербель – Зной
- Алишер Навои – Цветком, что счастье нам несет
- The Everlasting Voices by William Butler Yeats
- meeting.html
- The Last Man by Thomas Campbell
- Pensive and Faltering. by Walt Whitman
- A Reply by Wang Wei
- The Veairy Veet That I Do Meet by William Barnes
- Alexander VI Dines with the Cardinal of Capua by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Владимир Маяковский – В России голод… (Главполитпросвет № 236)
- Новелла Матвеева – Страна Дельфиния
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
- Fringed Gentian poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Frankincense and Myrrh poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Francis II, King of Naples poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Francis II, King of Naples poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Fragment poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Fool’s Money Bags poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Excerpt from “What’s O’Clock” poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Epitaph of a Young Poet Who Died Before Having Achieved Success poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Epitaph in a Church-Yard in Charleston, South Carolina poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Dreams poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Diya {original title is Greek, Delta-iota-psi-alpha} poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Crowned poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Crepuscule du Matin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Crepuscule du Matin poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Convalescence poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Convalescence poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Climbing poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Climbing poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Clear, with Light, Variable Winds poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Behind a Wall poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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.