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:
- A Voice From The West poem – Alfred Austin
- Dedication From Moremi by Wole Soyinka
- Yarrow Revisited by William Wordsworth
- Nocturno poem – Ana Chig poems | Poems and Poetry
- Mr. Mistoffelees by T. S. Eliot
- Epitaph on the same by Robert Burns
- On Seeing The Elgin Marbles For The First Time poem – John Keats poems
- Cartographies Of Silence
- Выхожу один я на дорогу – Лермонтов: Стихотворение, читать текст стиха Михаила Лермонтова – Poetry Monster
- Further You Go Longer You Stay
- Afridi Love
- Иннокентий Анненский – Еврипид. Троянки (перевод)
- Down By The Salley Gardens by William Butler Yeats
- Nick And The Candlestick by Sylvia Plath
- Анатолий Жигулин – Кострожоги
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 Гиляровский – Грядущее
- Владимир Гиляровский – Чем дальше в море
- Владимир Гиляровский – Белоснежные туманы
- Владимир Гандельсман – Воскрешение матери
- Владимир Домрин – Якутия
- Владимир Динец – Над степью весенней
- Владимир Данько – Верхом на палочке
- Владимир Корнилов – Звезды
- Владимир Корнилов – Жизнь
- Владимир Корнилов – Женщины
- Владимир Корнилов – Жара
- Владимир Корнилов – Зачем
- Владимир Корнилов – Яблоки
- Владимир Корнилов – Халабуда
- Владимир Корнилов – Вязальщица
- Владимир Корнилов – Встреча
- Владимир Корнилов – Ворон
- Владимир Корнилов – Военный оркестр
- Владимир Корнилов – Вечер Гарри Каспарова в Политехническом
- Владимир Корнилов – В прачечной
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.