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:
- Валерий Брюсов – После ночи бессонной
- English Poetry. Richard Hovey. John Keats. Ричард Хави.
- Thanatos Basileos poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Британишский – Будто катаясь на коньках
- Appeal by Ndue Ukaj
- A COUNTRY LIFE:TO HIS BROTHER, MR THOMAS HERRICK by Robert Herrick
- Николай Языков – П. Н. Шепелеву (Ты мой приятель задушевной)
- Василий Жуковский – Дружба
- Home Burial by Robert Frost
- Николай Некрасов – Внимая ужасам войны
- Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Long I Thought that Knowledge. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Tam Samson’s Elegy: When this worthy old sportman went out, last muirfowl season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian’s phrase, “the last of his fields,” and expressed an ardent wish to die and be buried in the muirs. On this hint the author composed his elegy and epitaph.-R.B., 1787.
- Industrial Lace poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- Epilogue by Vachel Lindsay
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
- Memorials of A Tour In Scotland, 1803 I. Departure From The Vale Of Grasmere, August 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Matthew by William Wordsworth
- Maternal Grief by William Wordsworth
- Mark The Concentrated Hazels That Enclose by William Wordsworth
- Lucy by William Wordsworth
- Lucy Gray [or Solitude] by William Wordsworth
- Louisa: After Accompanying Her On A Mountain Excursion by William Wordsworth
- Look Now On That Adventurer Who Hath Paid by William Wordsworth
- London, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written On A Blank Leaf In A Copy Of The Author’s Poem “The Excursion,” by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written In Early Spring by William Wordsworth
- Lines Written As A School Exercise At Hawkshead, Anno Aetatis 14 by William Wordsworth
- Lines On The Expected Invasion, 1803 by William Wordsworth
- Lines Left Upon The Seat Of A Yew-Tree, by William Wordsworth
- Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
- Laodamia by William Wordsworth
- Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots by William Wordsworth
- It was an April morning: fresh and clear by William Wordsworth
- It Is No Spirit Who From Heaven Hath Flown by William Wordsworth
- It Is a Beauteous Evening 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.