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:
- On a Scotch Bard, gone to the West Indies by Robert Burns
- Robert Burns: Versified Reply To An Invitation:
- Poor Mailie’s Elegy by Robert Burns
- Николай Языков – Разбойники
- Омар Хайям – Да пребудет вино неразлучно с тобой
- A Riddle by William Cowper
- Такахама Кёси – Мимо порта родного
- Rhyming Reply to a Note from Captain Riddell by Robert Burns
- Petals poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская песня
- On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Lament For The Makers By William Dunbar
- Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos
- Robert Burns: Raving Winds Around Her Blowing: I composed these verses on Miss Isabella M’Leod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister’s husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances.-R.B., 1971.
- Ольга Седакова – Вода-крестьянка
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
- Вера Павлова – Вот и пришли времена
- Вера Павлова – Вопрос ребра
- Вера Павлова – Весть обызвестковалась
- Вера Павлова – Вергилий в предсмертном бреду
- Вера Павлова – В ранец тетрадки собраны
- Вера Павлова – Утро вечера мудренее
- Вера Павлова – Удобряю ресницы снами
- Вера Павлова – Учась любовной науке
- Вера Павлова – У святителя вместо спины
- Вера Павлова – Ты вольно или невольно
- Вера Павлова – Твоя хладность
- Вера Павлова – Трогающему грудь
- Вера Павлова – Торчащее обтесать
- Вера Павлова – Толстые икры правителей
- Вера Павлова – Телефонные кнопки
- Вера Павлова – Сражаться с прошлым
- Вера Павлова – Снежную бабочку-однодневку
- Вера Павлова – Снег
- Вера Павлова – Слово держу осторожно
- Вера Полозкова – Или, к примеру, стоял какой-нибудь
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.