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:
- The Woodlands by William Barnes
- Despair
- In the Night poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Наум Коржавин – Комиссары
- Sonnet CLIV by William Shakespeare
- His Bargain by William Butler Yeats
- How to Increase Your Faith
- What Is Woman But A Song! by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- He Who Creates Re Creates Himself
- I Will Sing You One-O by Robert Frost
- The Rendezvous
- Lines Addressed To Dr. Darwin, Author Of The ‘Botanic Garden.’ by William Cowper
- Soliloquy Of The Solipsist by Sylvia Plath
- With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses by Vachel Lindsay
- Love’s Blindness poem – Alfred Austin
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
- Владимир Британишский – Крепостная интеллигенция
- Владимир Британишский – Красный конь
- Владимир Британишский – Край Земли
- Владимир Британишский – Космонавты
- Владимир Британишский – Коптилки многолетний свет
- Владимир Британишский – Континенты
- Владимир Британишский – Композитор
- Владимир Британишский – Когда потянет нас на компромисс
- Владимир Британишский – Клейнмихель
- Владимир Британишский – Кипренский. Портрет С.С. Уварова 1816 год
- Владимир Британишский – Картина
- Владимир Британишский – Письмо
- Владимир Британишский – Петербургский горожанин
- Владимир Британишский – Первая послевоенная осень
- Владимир Британишский – Переписка
- Владимир Британишский – Перед самой войной
- Владимир Британишский – Перед дверью
- Владимир Британишский – Пароход пришел
- Владимир Британишский – Памятник
- Владимир Британишский – Паллас
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.