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:
- Alison Gross poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Despair by Samuel Coleridge
- Олег Бундур – Разговор
- Альфред де Мюссе – Слова отчаянья прекрасней всех других
- His Holiness the Abbot by Yosa Buson
- Константин Батюшков – Мои пенаты
- Robert Burns: Hey, Ca’ Thro’ – Boat song:
- Николай Тихонов – Даль полевая, как при Калите
- Forfeiture
- Владимир Британишский – На конференции молодых геофизиков
- Николай Заболоцкий – Разговор с медведем
- Олег Бундур – Лагуна
- Виталий Ревякин – Самарский край
- dear owl, forlorn like King Lear by Raj Arumugam
- Desert Places by Robert Frost
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
- The Little Boy And The Old Man by Shel Silverstein
- The Land Of Happy by Shel Silverstein
- The Hunter by Shel Silverstein
- The Great Conch Train Robbery by Shel Silverstein
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- The Generals by Shel Silverstein
- The Bridge by Shel Silverstein
- The Boa Constrictor Song by Shel Silverstein
- The Bear, The Fire, And The Snow by Shel Silverstein
- The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan by Shel Silverstein
- The Bagpipe Who Didn’t Say No by Shel Silverstein
- Testing The Bomb by Shel Silverstein
- Sylvia’s Mother by Shel Silverstein
- Sure Hit Songwriter’s Pen by Shel Silverstein
- Son Of A Scoundrel by Shel Silverstein
- Someone Ate The Baby by Shel Silverstein
- Someday’s Here by Shel Silverstein
- Somebody Has To by Shel Silverstein
- Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein
- Sing Me A Rainbow by Shel Silverstein
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.