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:
- Writing Strategy: On Getting Inspired Everyday
- Ariosto Orlando Furioso Canto X 91 99
- Blue-Butterfly Day by Robert Frost
- Song—Awa’, Whigs, Awa’ by Robert Burns
- Clouds by Philip Levine
- Sketch—New Year’s Day, 1790 by Robert Burns
- Love Expression in Marriage
- Ballade Of Midsummer Days And Nights by William Ernest Henley
- Morning by Mark R Slaughter
- Омар Хайям – Душой ты безбожник с Писаньем в руке
- Closed Path by Rabindranath Tagore
- Song—Farewell to the Banks of Ayr by Robert Burns
- come on in, baby by Raj Arumugam
- Владимир Маяковский – Электричество – вид энергии
- Song—O let me in this ae night by Robert Burns
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 Маяковский – Только организация урожай умножит… (Главполитпросвет №33)
- Владимир Маяковский – Точеные слоны
- Владимир Маяковский – Типографы книги делают… (РОСТА №241)
- Владимир Маяковский – Тигр и киса
- Владимир Маяковский – Теоретики
- Владимир Маяковский – Тексты “окон”, переработанные для сборника “Грозный смех”
- Владимир Маяковский – Тексты для издательства “Сегодняшний лубок” (Плакаты)
- Владимир Маяковский – Тебе тепло?.. (РОСТА №599)
- Владимир Маяковский – Театры
- Владимир Маяковский – Тамара и демон
- Владимир Маяковский – Схема смеха
- Владимир Маяковский – Свидетельствую
- Владимир Маяковский – Студенту пролетарию
- Владимир Маяковский – Строители коммуны (РОСТА)
- Владимир Маяковский – Странно… но верно
- Владимир Маяковский – Столп
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой, товарищ! Стонет Поволжье, о помощи моля (Главполитпросвет №344)
- Владимир Маяковский – Стой!.. (РОСТА №416)
- Маяковский – Стоит баба с жопой метр на метр: стих, текст стихотворения Владимира Маяковского – Poetry Monster
- Владимир Маяковский – Стихотворение о проданной телятине
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.