A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
At noon thepaper tigers roar
— Miroslav Holub
The paper tigers roar at noon;
The sun is hot, the sun is high.
They roar in chorus, not in tune,
Their plaintive, savage hunting cry.
O, when you hear them, stop your ears
And clench your lids and bite your tongue.
The harmless paper tiger bears
Strong fascination for the young.
His forest is the busy street;
His dens the forum and the mart;
He drinks no blood, he tastes no meat:
He riddles and corrupts the heart.
But when the dusk begins to creep
From tree to tree, from door to door,
The jungle tiger wakes from sleep
And utters his authentic roar.
It bursts the night and shakes the stars
Till one breaks blazing from the sky;
Then listen! If to meet it soars
Your heart’s reverberating cry,
My child, then put aside your fear:
Unbar the door and walk outside!
The real tiger waits you there;
His golden eyes shall be your guide.
And, should he spare you in his wrath,
The world and all the worlds are yours;
And should he leap thejungle path
And clasp you with his bloody jaws,
Then say, as his divine embrace
Destroys the mortal parts of you:
I too am of that royal race
Who do what we are born to do.
A few random poems:
- From the bay at Tago poem – Yamabe no Akahito poems | Poetry Monster
- À ce point du voyage by Martine Morillon-Carreau
- Юлия Друнина – Два вечера
- The Elms poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- An Evening by William Allingham
- Love Sonnet LVIII poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Defamation by Rabindranath Tagore
- Федор Сологуб – Ландыш пленительный
- Far In a Western Brookland poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Sometimes….Life’s A Beach by Stevens Cadet
- Омар Хайям о людях: Стихи, рубаи о человеке Омара Хайяма – Poetry Monster
- Disappointment
- An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Poetic Vision – Heaven’s Door
- A World So Different by Mary Etta Metcalf
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
- Parabola
- Observation Car
- Morning Coffee
- Meditation on a Bone
- Easter Hymn
- Death of the Bird
- Crossing the Frontier
- Conquistador
- Commination
- Australia
- Winter Dream poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Waking poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Vision poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Valedictory poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Topiary poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Reef poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Louse-Hunters poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Life Theoretic poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Flowers poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- The Elms poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
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.