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:
- Love Sonnet XLIX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Алексей Хомяков – Ritterspruch – Richterspruch
- The Bell Buoy by Rudyard Kipling
- Twiddle-de-dee by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Ольга Ермолаева – Если о плачущих
- Владимир Маяковский – Современный Козьма Прутков
- Lulu by Manolo Arriola
- Elegiac Stanzas Suggested By A Picture Of Peele Castle by William Wordsworth
- Reply to an Announcement by J. Rankine by Robert Burns
- In The Carolinas by Wallace Stevens
- Subjective Genocide by Marie Starr
- Кондратий Рылеев – К N. N. (У вас в гостях бывать накладно)
- Night In Arizona by Sara Teasdale
- Love Preparing to Fly poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Threads of Gold by Ronald G. Auguste
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
- Жан де Лафонтен – Голубь и Муравей
- Жан де Лафонтен – Фортуна и Дитя
- Жан де Лафонтен – Эзопово объяснение одного завещания
- Жан де Лафонтен – Две Козы
- Жан де Лафонтен – Два Мула
- Жан де Лафонтен – Дровосек и Меркурий
- Жан де Лафонтен – Дафнис и Алцимадура
- Жан де Лафонтен – Человек и его Изображение
- Жан де Лафонтен – Безумец и Мудрец
- Жан де Лафонтен – Астролог, упавший в колодец
- Жан де Лафонтен – Амур и Безумие
- Жан Расин – Решенье принято, час перемены пробил
- Жан Расин – Когда мы вышли из Трезенских врат
- Жан Расин – Гофолия
- Жан Расин – Британик
- Жан Расин – Андромаха
- Зинаида Александрова – Зимняя песенка
- Зинаида Александрова – Волчонок
- Зинаида Александрова – Ветер на речке
- Зинаида Александрова – Венок
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.