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:
- Вера Павлова – Заплетала косички
- Вероника Тушнова – Я стою у открытой двери
- Epigram on Parting with a kind Host in the Highlands by Robert Burns
- What Place is Besieged? by Walt Whitman
- What Happened by Rudyard Kipling
- Robert Burns: On Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday:
- A Perfect World by Robby Charters
- On Presenting to a Lady a White Rose and a Red on the Tenth of June by William Somervile
- Stars
- Николай Языков – Валдайский узник
- Гавриил Державин – Жуковскому и Родзянке, приславшим с большими похвалами автору перевод его оды «Бог» на французском языке
- Criss-Cross Acrostic*: Ai My Eye ! by T. Wignesan
- Георгий Иванов – То, о чем искусство лжет
- Scum Of The Earth by Shel Silverstein
- Earth! my Likeness! by Walt Whitman
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
- Олег Бундур – Уроки
- Олег Бундур – Умный кот
- Олег Бундур – Учительница открыла журнал
- Олег Бундур – Уборка
- Олег Бундур – У кромки моря
- Олег Бундур – Тропа
- Олег Бундур – Тревожное время
- Олег Бундур – Тополёк
- Олег Бундур – Там, где мы родились
- Олег Бундур – Света у доски
- Олег Бундур – Сухари
- Олег Бундур – Страх
- Олег Бундур – Сторож
- Олег Бундур – Старания
- Олег Бундур – Справились с делами
- Олег Бундур – Спешу
- Олег Бундур – Совет
- Олег Бундур – Сорока
- Олег Бундур – Сон
- Олег Бундур – Собираемся в гости
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.