A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
What pleasures have great princes? These: to know
Themselves reputed mad with pride or power;
To speak few words — few words and short bring low
This ancient house, that city with flame devour;
To make old men, their father’s enemies,
Drunk on the vintage of the former age;
To have great painters show their mistresses
Naked to the succeeding time; engage
The cunning of able, treacherous ministers
To serve, despite themselves, the cause they hate,
And leave a prosperous kingdom to their heirs
Nursed by the caterpillars of the state;
To keep their spies in good men’s hearts; to read
The malice of the wise, and act betimes;
To hear the Grand Remonstrances of greed
Led by the pure; cheat justice of her crimes;
To beget worthless sons and, being old,
By starlight climb the battlements, and while
The pacing sentry hugs himself for cold,
Keep vigil like a lover, muse and smile,
And think, to see from the grim castle steep
The midnight city below rejoice and shine:
“There my great demon grumbles in his sleep
And dreams of his destruction, and of mine.”
A few random poems:
- O Sun of Real Peace. by Walt Whitman
- British Freedom by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Солдаты самодержавной армии мясниками бывали… (РОСТА №146)
- The Foreigner poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Paying The Captain by Russell Edson
- Валерий Брюсов – Il bacio
- calling-the-spirits.html
- As One Who Having Wandered All Night Long by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Storm by Sara Teasdale
- How I Walked Alone in the Jungles of Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- Владимир Британишский – Аркадия
- The Messiah : A Sacred Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Николай Заболоцкий – Испытание воли
- Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar by T. S. Eliot
- The Change by Tony Hoagland
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
- Little Flute by Rabindranath Tagore
- Light by Rabindranath Tagore
- Let Me Not Forget by Rabindranath Tagore
- Leave This by Rabindranath Tagore
- Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore
- Journey Home by Rabindranath Tagore
- Innermost One by Rabindranath Tagore
- Give Me Strength by Rabindranath Tagore
- Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
- Free Love by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fool by Rabindranath Tagore
- Flower by Rabindranath Tagore
- Farewell by Rabindranath Tagore
- Fairyland by Rabindranath Tagore
- Face To Face by Rabindranath Tagore
- Endless Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Dungeon by Rabindranath Tagore
- Distant Time by Rabindranath Tagore
- Defamation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Colored Toys by Rabindranath Tagore
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.