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:
- Sonnet 54: O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem by William Shakespeare
- Aunt Jennifers Tigers
- The Wanderer by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Британишский – Куда ты уйдешь
- Алишер Навои – Птицу-сердце полонила нежных локонов силком
- Synchronicity by Marina Cecilia Kohon
- Нина Гаген-Торн – День мой в труде тяжелом
- A Rebus, By I. B. by Phillis Wheatley
- Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня лётчика
- Анатолий Жигулин – Гулко эхо от ранних шагов
- Waking poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- For Roman Polanski by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Владимир Маяковский – Вперед, комсомольцы
- Sonnet 19: Devouring Time blunt thou the lion’s paws by William Shakespeare
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 First Part: Sonnet 10 – Fair Moon, who with thy cold and silver shine by William Drummond
- The First Part: Sonnet 1 – In my first years, and prime yet not at height by William Drummond
- The Editor by William Ellery Leonard
- The Book Of The World by William Drummond
- The Beggar by William Ellery Leonard
- Reading by William Marr
- Premature Blindness by Winston Riley
- May-Night by William Ellery Leonard
- Man’s Knowledge – Ingorance in the Mysteries of God by William Drummond
- Indian Summer by William Ellery Leonard
- In the Small Hours by Wole Soyinka
- In Christ there is No East Or West by John Oxenham
- His Mercy Endureth For Ever by John Oxenham
- Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling
- God Is Good by John Oxenham
- Gadara, A.D. 31 by John Oxenham
- Freemen by John Oxenham
- Free Men Of God by John Oxenham
- For the Men at the Front by John Oxenham
- Flowers Of The Dust by John Oxenham
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.