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:
- Юрий Коринец – Стихи о вшах
- Rainbow Hues by Suchi Gaur
- Buddies by Richard Schiffman
- No Rival Like The Past
- Алексей Жемчужников – Земля
- William Gilmore Simms – William Gilmore Simms
- Passion Of My Heart by Stevens Cadet
- A Man Young And Old: IX. The Secrets Of The Old by William Butler Yeats
- In Darkness poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Brook poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Sonnet X
- Twins by Vinko Kalinić
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Праздник на биваке
- Epistle to James Smith by Robert Burns
- Федор Сваровский – Погребение мехоса
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 Abigail and the Beautiful Pony by Shel Silverstein
- Listen To The Mustn’ts by Shel Silverstein
- Lemmebesomethin’ by Shel Silverstein
- I’ve Been Working So Hard by Shel Silverstein
- In The Hills Of Shiloh by Shel Silverstein
- In Search Of Cinderella by Shel Silverstein
- I’m So Good That I Don’t Have To Brag by Shel Silverstein
- I’m My Own Grandpa by Shel Silverstein
- If The World Was Crazy by Shel Silverstein
- If I Had A Brontosaurus by Shel Silverstein
- I Once Knew A Woman by Shel Silverstein
- I Can’t Touch The Sun by Shel Silverstein
- I Call That True Love by Shel Silverstein
- Hug O’War by Shel Silverstein
- Hippo’s Hope by Shel Silverstein
- Hector The Collector by Shel Silverstein
- Hard To Please by Shel Silverstein
- Handy Man by Shel Silverstein
- Hamlet As Told On The Street by Shel Silverstein
- For What She Had Done 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.