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:
- Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare
- Twilight by Shaunna Harper
- Wind by Ted Hughes
- Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine
- Наум Коржавин – Комиссары
- Rapids poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- The Rolling Mills by Michael McGovern
- First Light
- Николай Языков – Романс (Угрюм стоит дремучий лес)
- Владимир Гиппиус стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Владимир Гиппиус – Поэзия на Poetry Monster
- The Poet And Imagination
- Кондратий Рылеев – Луна
- Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats poem – John Keats poems
- Николай Заболоцкий – Слепой
- A Scot To Jeanne D’Arc poem – Andrew Lang 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
- Николай Заболоцкий – Старость
- Николай Заболоцкий – Старая актриса
- Николай Заболоцкий – Сон
- Николай Заболоцкий – Смерть врача
- Николай Заболоцкий – Слепой
- Николай Заболоцкий – Сказка о кривом человечке
- Николай Заболоцкий – Шакалы
- Николай Заболоцкий – Сентябрь
- Николай Заболоцкий – Счастливый день
- Николай Заболоцкий – Рыбная лавка
- Николай Заболоцкий – Рубрук в Монголии
- Николай Заболоцкий – Разговор с медведем
- Николай Заболоцкий – Птичий двор
- Николай Заболоцкий – Противостояние Марса
- Николай Заболоцкий – Прощание
- Николай Заболоцкий – Приглашение на пир
- Николай Заболоцкий – Предостережение
- Николай Заболоцкий – Поход
- Николай Заболоцкий – Последняя любовь
- Николай Заболоцкий – Портрет
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.