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:
- An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Epistle 1 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Джон Донн – Я весь боренье, на беду мою
- The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore
- Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley
- Ольга Седакова – Легенда шестая
- William Ellery Leonard – William Ellery Leonard
- Олег Григорьев – Дождь
- To Sea by Martin Zakovski
- The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth
- To Sleep poem – John Keats poems
- Water Strider by Aaron Baker
- Happy Teacher’s Day by Vinaya Kumar Hanumanthappa
- Interview With Joseph D’Agnese, Author Of Jersey Heat
- Анатолий Жигулин – Из больничной тетради
- Grief An’ Gladness by William Barnes
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
- Hobbinol; or The Rural Games – Canto 2 by William Somervile
- Hare-hunting by William Somervile
- Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 5 by William Somervile
- Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 3 by William Somervile
- Fortune-Hunter, The – Canto 1 by William Somervile
- For the Lute by William Somervile
- First let the kennel be the huntsman’s care by William Somervile
- Field Sports by William Somervile
- Epistle from Mr. Somerville, An by William Somervile
- Chase, The – Book 1 by William Somervile
- All-Accomplished Rover by William Somervile
- Advice to the Ladies by William Somervile
- Address to His Elbow-Chair, New Cloath’d, An by William Somervile
- A Padlock for the Mouth by William Somervile
- “Young England–What Is Then Become Of Old” by William Wordsworth
- Yew-Trees by William Wordsworth
- “Yes! Thou Art Fair, Yet Be Not Moved” by William Wordsworth
- Yes, It Was The Mountain Echo by William Wordsworth
- Yarrow Visited by William Wordsworth
- Yarrow Unvisited by William Wordsworth
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.