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:
- Ballade Of The Muse poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Forgotten by Priya Prithviraj
- The Lover Mourns For The Loss Of Love by William Butler Yeats
- Hark! Hark! The Lark by William Shakespeare
- They won’t Know by Rifat Ilgaz
- Sonnet IX. Keen, Fitful Gusts Are poem – John Keats poems
- The Passing Cloud by Rashmi Sreekumar
- Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – В метро
- Development of Indian English Poetry
- The Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood
- Chanson D’Amour by Shaunna Harper
- EVENING… by R.M. Engelhardt
- Grace by Sappho
- Drowned in Illusion by Rixa White
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
- Федор Тютчев – Как верно здравый смысл народа
- Федор Тютчев – Как птичка, раннею зарей
- Федор Тютчев – Как он любил родные ели
- Федор Тютчев – Как ни тяжел последний час
- Федор Тютчев – Как ни бесилося злоречье
- Федор Тютчев – Как неожиданно и ярко
- Федор Тютчев – Как нас ни угнетай разлука
- Федор Тютчев – Как летней иногда порою
- Федор Тютчев – Как дымный столп светлеет в вышине
- Федор Тютчев – Как бестолковы числа эти
- Федор Тютчев – К портрету государственного канцлера, князя А.М. Горчакова
- Федор Тютчев – К Нисе
- Федор Тютчев – К Н.
- Федор Тютчев – Анненковой (D’une fille du Nord, chetive et languissante)
- Федор Тютчев – А. Н. М.
- Федор Тютчев – А.А. Фету (Тебе сердечный мой поклон)
- Федор Тютчев – 23 Fevrier 1861
- Федор Сваровский – Слава стране моей
- Федор Сваровский – Речь на юбилее
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени. свидетель зиндийского удара
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.