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:
- Elemental Drifts. by Walt Whitman
- To the State of Love. Or the Senses’ Festival. By John Cleveland
- Sonnet CXLIII by William Shakespeare
- Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant
- An Old Doll
- To The Rev. Mr. Newton, On His Return From Ramsgate by William Cowper
- Words Of Love Forevermore by Timothy Thomas Fortune
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Звездочет
- Владимир Маяковский – Понедельник – субботник
- Armies in the Fire by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Midsummer Mobile by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мне в душу ступит кто-то посторонний
- Такахама Кёси – Кажется мне
- I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood
- To A Girl In A Garden by Sappho
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
- How I Walked Alone in the Jungles of Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- How a Little Girl Sang by Vachel Lindsay
- How a Little Girl Danced by Vachel Lindsay
- Honor Among Scamps by Vachel Lindsay
- Here’s to the Mice! by Vachel Lindsay
- Heart of God by Vachel Lindsay
- Genesis by Vachel Lindsay
- General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay
- Galahad, Knight Who Perished by Vachel Lindsay
- Foreign Missions in Battle Array by Vachel Lindsay
- Factory Windows are Always Broken by Vachel Lindsay
- Euclid by Vachel Lindsay
- Epitaphs For Two Players by Vachel Lindsay
- Epilogue by Vachel Lindsay
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Vachel Lindsay
- Eden in Winter by Vachel Lindsay
- Drying Their Wings by Vachel Lindsay
- Darling Daughter of Babylon by Vachel Lindsay
- Concerning Emperors by Vachel Lindsay
- Caught in a Net by Vachel Lindsay
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.