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:
- Two Songs
- For Him I Sing. by Walt Whitman
- “Let the nymph still avoid and be deaf to the swain” by Tobias Smollett
- Hidebound by Shaunna Harper
- The Gardener LXXIX: I Often Wonder by Rabindranath Tagore
- Homecoming of Love on the Sands by Rafael Alberti
- Аля Кудряшева – Тишина
- A Prayer For Old Age by William Butler Yeats
- The house where I was born (06) by Yves Bonnefoy
- Lodged by Robert Frost
- Landscapes poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Маяковский – Чаеуправление (реклама)
- The Song of the Cities by Rudyard Kipling
- Last Curtain by Rabindranath Tagore
- My 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
- V: Some Verses: To The Author Parthenius by William Alexander
- To Prince Charles by William Alexander
- To his Majestie by William Alexander
- The Sonnet, The Lady, And The Prince by William Alexander
- The Roses And The Mothers Cannot Choose by William Alexander
- Sonet 58 by William Alexander
- Sonet 57 by William Alexander
- Sonet 56 by William Alexander
- Sonet 55 by William Alexander
- Sonet 54 by William Alexander
- Sonet 53 by William Alexander
- Sonet 52 by William Alexander
- Sonet 51 by William Alexander
- Sonet 50 by William Alexander
- Sonet 5 by William Alexander
- Sonet 49 by William Alexander
- Sonet 48 by William Alexander
- Sonet 47 by William Alexander
- Sonet 44 by William Alexander
- Sonet 43 by William Alexander
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.