A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
Crossing the frontier they were stopped in time,
Told, quite politely, they would have to wait:
Passports in order, nothing to declare
And surely holding hands was not a crime
Until they saw how, ranged across the gate,
All their most formidable friends were there.
Wearing his conscience like a crucifix,
Her father, rampant, nursed the Family Shame;
And, armed wlth their old-fashioned dinner-gong,
His aunt, who even when they both were six,
Had just to glance towards a childish game
To make them feel that they were doing wrong.
And both their mothers, simply weeping floods,
Her head-mistress, his boss, the parish priest,
And the bank manager who cashed their cheques;
The man who sold him his first rubber-goods;
Dog Fido, from whose love-life, shameless beast,
She first observed the basic facts of sex.
They looked as though they had stood there for hours;
For years; perhaps for ever. In the trees
Two furtive birds stopped courting and flew off;
While in the grass beside the road the flowers
Kept up their guilty traffic with the bees.
Nobody stirred. Nobody risked a cough.
Nobody spoke. The minutes ticked away;
The dog scratched idly. Then, as parson bent
And whispered to a guard who hurried in,
The customs-house loudspeakers with a bray
Of raucous and triumphant argument
Broke out the wedding march from Lohengrin.
He switched the engine off: “We must turn back.”
She heard his voice break, though he had to shout
Against a din that made their senses reel,
And felt his hand, so tense in hers, go slack.
But suddenly she laughed and said: “Get out!
Change seatsl Be quickl” and slid behind the wheel.
And drove the car straight at them with a harsh,
Dry crunch that showered both with scraps and chips,
Drove through them; barriers rising let them pass
Drove through and on and on, with Dad’s moustache
Beside her twitching still round waxen lips
And Mother’s tears still streaming down the glass.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Британишский – Служба
- If I Had A Brontosaurus by Shel Silverstein
- The Rape of the Lock: Canto 4 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Petrarchan Sonnet: If no one else breathed in this wide, wide world by T. Wignesan
- The Welshnut Tree by William Barnes
- Bottles Of Sunshine by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A New Year’s Resolution to Leave Dundee by William Topaz McGonagall
- Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division.
- Омар Хайям – Египет, Рим, Китай держи ты под пятой
- Николай Карамзин – К самому себе
- Владимир Маяковский – Современный Козьма Прутков
- Dust by Rupert Brooke
- Cezanne’s Ports poem – Allen Ginsberg
- Федор Сологуб – Ландыши, ландыши, бедные цветы
- Zellen Woone’s Honey To Buy Zome’hat Sweet by William Barnes
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 Бенедиктов – Напрасные жертвы
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Напоминание
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Наездница
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На пятидесятилетний юбилей Крылова
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На море
- Владимир Бенедиктов – На гулянье
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Н. Ф. Щербине
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мысль
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мороз
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Монастыркам
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Молитва
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Могила в мансарде
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Могила
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мне были дороги мгновенья
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мелочи жизни
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Маша
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Маленькой Женни
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Люцерн
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Люблю тебя
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Любить
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.