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:
- Limitations by Siegfried Sassoon
- Heavy Woman by Sylvia Plath
- A Desolate Shore by William Ernest Henley
- Bucolics by Sylvia Plath
- Николай Гумилев – Когда я был влюблен
- Idylls of the King: The Marriage of Geraint poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
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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
- Robert Burns: Poem On Pastoral Poetry :
- Robert Burns: On Glenriddell’s Fox Breaking His Chain: A Fragment
- Robert Burns: The Posie :
- Robert Burns: What Can A Young Lassie Do Wi’ An Auld Man:
- Robert Burns: The Charms Of Lovely Davies:
- Robert Burns: Epigram On Miss Davies: On being asked why she had been formed so little, and Mrs. A-so big.
- Robert Burns: The Bonie Wee Thing:
- Robert Burns: Craigieburn Wood:
- Robert Burns: Lines Sent To Sir John Whiteford, Bart: With The Lament On The Death Of the Earl Of Glencairn
- Robert Burns: Lament For James, Earl Of Glencairn:
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Third Version
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: Second Version
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: First Version
- Robert Burns: Out Over The Forth:
- Robert Burns: There’ll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame:
- Robert Burns: Lament Of Mary, Queen Of Scots, On The Approach Of Spring:
- Robert Burns: Elegy On The Late Miss Burnet Of Monboddo :
- Robert Burns: On The Birth Of A Posthumous Child: Born in peculiar circumstances of family distress.
- Robert Burns: Tam O’ Shanter: A Tale
- Robert Burns: Verses On Captain Grose: Written on an Envelope, enclosing a Letter to Him.
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)
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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.