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:
- The Day Of Wrath / Dies Iræ poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Гавриил Державин – Песенка
- Thompson’s Lunch Room – Grand Central Station poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: On The Late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations Thro’ Scotland: Collecting The Antiquities Of That Kingdom
- Владимир Набоков – Барс
- Карл Сэндберг – Молитва стали
- Valhalla
- Li Po, the moon and me by Raj Arumugam
- Autumn by William Morris
- Олег Григорьев – Совершенно откровенно
- At Bordj-an-Nus poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
- Cholera Camp by Rudyard Kipling
- last_word_to_childhood.html
- Cruel Kindness by Rabindranath Tagore
- Miss Brown by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
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
- A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare
- Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare
- Napoleon by Walter de la Mare
- Arabia by Walter de la Mare
- An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare
- To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh
- To a Lady with an Unruly and Ill-mannered Dog Who Bit several Persons of Importance by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Silent Lover ii by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Silent Lover i by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Lie by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Conclusion by Sir Walter Raleigh
- The Artist by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Song of Myself by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Sestina Otiosa by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Now What Is Love by Sir Walter Raleigh
- On Being Challenged to Write an Epigram in the Manner of Herrick by Sir Walter Raleigh
- Nature that Washed Her Hands in Milk by Sir Walter Raleigh
- My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh
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.