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:
- Гавриил Державин – Оковы
- The Princess (prologue) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Song—Beware o’ Bonie Ann by Robert Burns
- Soliloquy In A Tub poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- Гавриил Державин – На возвращение графа Зубова из Персии
- Lost Love Is Never Lost
- Crazy Jane Talks With The Bishop by William Butler Yeats
- Ольга Берггольц – Таков мой подарок тебе за измену
- Faithless Sally Brown by Thomas Hood
- Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Костров – Выходец из волости лесистой
- The Mystic Isle by Rainbow Reed
- Sadness and Joy by William Henry Davies
- Иван Варавва – Жаворонок
- On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth
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 Confederate Flags poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- At The Close Of The Canvass poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Christian poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Bride poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- At The Close Of The Canvass poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Wreath Of Immortelles poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- With a Book poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Weather poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- To the Bartholdi Statue poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Statesmen poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Safety-Clutch poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Rimer poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Piety poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ambrose Bierce – Ambrose Bierce Poems | Poems and Poetry
- Freedom poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Elegy poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Decalogue poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- An Inion poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Alone poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- On Beer
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.