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:
- Better Not Ask Me by Shel Silverstein
- The Dunciad: Book I. poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Gold Mouths Cry by Sylvia Plath
- Epitaphs Translated From Chiabrera by William Wordsworth
- The Song Of The Old Mother by William Butler Yeats
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- Milton (Alcaics) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- X: Some Verses: To His Most Affectionate Friend Mr. Lithgow by William Alexander
- The Gardener LV: It Was Mid-Day by Rabindranath Tagore
- Зинаида Александрова – Ромашки
- I don’t want to have you by Vinko Kalinic
- Толстой Алексей Николаевич стихи: Читать стихотворения Алексея Толстого – Список произведений, стихов поэта на Poetry Monster
- Not Fear by Rafael Guillen
- Владимир Британишский – Переписка
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
- Calais, August 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Calais, August 15, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- By The Side Of The Grave Some Years After by William Wordsworth
- By The Seaside by William Wordsworth
- “By Moscow Self-Devoted To A Blaze” by William Wordsworth
- “Brook! Whose Society The Poet Seeks” by William Wordsworth
- British Freedom by William Wordsworth
- “Brave Schill! By Death Delivered” by William Wordsworth
- Bothwell Castle by William Wordsworth
- Book Twelfth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored ] by William Wordsworth
- Book Thirteenth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored Concluded] by William Wordsworth
- Book Third [Residence at Cambridge] by William Wordsworth
- Book Tenth {Residence in France continued] by William Wordsworth
- Book Sixth [Cambridge and the Alps] by William Wordsworth
- Book Seventh [Residence in London] by William Wordsworth
- Book Second [School-Time Continued] by William Wordsworth
- Book Ninth [Residence in France] by William Wordsworth
- Book Fourth [Summer Vacation] by William Wordsworth
- Book Fourteenth [conclusion] by William Wordsworth
- Book First [Introduction-Childhood and School Time] 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.