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:
- Olney Hymn 60: Abuse Of The Gospel by William Cowper
- Михаил Кузмин – Вот после ржавых львов и рева
- Анатолий Жигулин – Кордон Песчаный
- Mad As The Mist And Snow by William Butler Yeats
- A Veterans Memories Breeze By In the Wind by Stacey Chillemi
- XV: Some Verses: Ciprian’s Smyling by William Alexander
- Константин Ваншенкин – Ехал я в штабном автомобиле
- Reading by William Marr
- My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh
- A Song at Cock-Crow by Rudyard Kipling
- 600 Kilos of Muscle and Bone by Rose Mary Boehm
- In the Park by Maxine Kumin
- A Supplication
- Lost Love Is Never Lost
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
- Джон Мильтон – Новым гонителям свободы
- Джон Мильтон – Написано в дни, когда ожидался штурм Лондона
- Джон Китс – Два-три букета и две-три коробки
- Джон Китс – Дуралейная песня
- Джон Китс – Девчонка из Девона
- Джон Китс – Делим яблоко Евы
- Джон Китс – Что ж, по горам и по долам
- Джон Китс – Четыре разных времени в году
- Джон Китс – Чаттертону
- Джон Донн – Женская верность
- Джон Донн – Я весь боренье, на беду мою
- Джон Донн – Христос, Свою невесту, всю в лучах
- Джон Донн – Ворожба над портретом
- Джон Донн – О черная душа, Недуг напал
- Джон Донн – Ничто
- Джон Донн – Мощи
- Джон Донн – Любовная наука
- Джон Донн – Лекция о тени
- Джон Донн – Когда я с ней, с моим бесценным кладом
- Демьян Бедный – Весенний благостный покой
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.