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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Чтоб нас не заела разруха зубами голодных годов… (Главполитпросвет №7)
- Loneliness is a prison by Vladimir Marku
- The Dunciad: Book IV poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking. by Walt Whitman
- Николай Языков – П. В. Киреевскому (Ты крепкий, праведный стоятель)
- Владимир Британишский – Античник Альтман
- Paradox by Willa Cather
- The Mystic Isle by Rainbow Reed
- The Clime Of My Birth by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Ox Tamer, The. by Walt Whitman
- Николай Некрасов – В тоске по юности моей
- Above the Battle’s Front by Vachel Lindsay
- O Blush Not So! poem – John Keats poems
- Romantic Hour by Suuk Simon Subinimah
- The Fairies Break Their Dances poem – A. E. Housman
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
- William Gilmore Simms – William Gilmore Simms
- Ode–Shell The Old City! Shell! by William Gilmore Simms
- Morris Island by William Gilmore Simms
- Hast Thou A Song For A Flower by William Gilmore Simms
- Flight To Nature by William Gilmore Simms
- Blessings On Children by William Gilmore Simms
- Hymn To Woden by William Lisle Bowles
- Hope, An Allegorical Sketch by William Lisle Bowles
- Epitaph On H. Walmsley, Esq., by William Lisle Bowles
- Elegy Written At Hotwells, Bristol by William Lisle Bowles
- Distant View Of England From The Sea by William Lisle Bowles
- Death Of Captain Cooke, by William Lisle Bowles
- Battle Of Corruna by William Lisle Bowles
- Avenue In Savernake Forest by William Lisle Bowles
- At Tynemouth Priory by William Lisle Bowles
- At Oxford by William Lisle Bowles
- At Malvern by William Lisle Bowles
- At Dover by William Lisle Bowles
- Approach Of Summer by William Lisle Bowles
- Abba Thule’s Lament For His Son Prince Le Boo by William Lisle Bowles
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.