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:
- Adieu poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster
- Tractor by Ted Hughes
- On Receiving Hayley’s Picture by William Cowper
- The Municipal Gallery Revisited by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Маяковский – Новые силы в III Интернационале!.. (РОСТА №891)
- I love you
- Lover’s Gifts XL: A Message Came by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fault by Sara Teasdale
- Ок Мельникова – Если есть от кого ждать писем
- Mother Ocean poem – Amy E. Johnsen poems | Poems and Poetry
- Evolution by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
- The Sudden Light And The Trees by Stephen Dunn
- Decision
- Эмиль Верхарн – Вокруг моего дома
- The Lord of Burleigh poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
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
- Оливер Голдсмит – Пыл упований людям дан
- Оливер Голдсмит – Послание в прозе и стихах
- Оливер Голдсмит – Подношение
- Оливер Голдсмит – Песенка
- Оливер Голдсмит – Опровержение логики
- Оливер Голдсмит – Оленья туша
- Оливер Голдсмит – Каждому по заслугам
- Оливер Голдсмит – Эпитафия Неду Пардону
- Ольга Высотская – Звёздочки
- Ольга Высотская – Здравствуй, праздник
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Ольга Высотская – Волны
- Ольга Высотская – Веселый поезд
- Ольга Высотская – Снежный кролик
- Ольга Высотская – Первые заморозки
- Ольга Высотская – Обидчивая кукушка
- Ольга Высотская – Гости
- Ольга Высотская – Ежик
- Ольга Высотская стихи: лучшие стихотворения для детей Высотской – Poetry Monster
- Ольга Высотская – Детский сад
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.