A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
A Nation of trees, drab green and desolate grey
In the field uniform of modern wars,
Darkens her hills, those endless, outstretched paws
Of Sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away.
They call her a young country, but they lie:
She is the last of lands, the emptiest,
A woman beyond her change of life, a breast
Still tender but within the womb is dry.
Without songs, architecture, history:
The emotions and superstitions of younger lands,
Her rivers of water drown among inland sands,
The river of her immense stupidity
Floods her monotonous tribes from Cairns to Perth.
In them at last the ultimate men arrive
Whose boast is not: “we live” but “we survive”,
A type who will inhabit the dying earth.
And her five cities, like five teeming sores,
Each drains her: a vast parasite robber-state
Where second hand Europeans pullulate
Timidly on the edge of alien shores.
Yet there are some like me turn gladly home
From the lush jungle of modern thought, to find
The Arabian desert of the human mind,
Hoping, if still from the deserts the prophets come,
Such savage and scarlet as no green hills dare
Springs in that waste, some spirit which escapes
The learned doubt, the chatter of cultured apes
Which is called civilization over there.
A few random poems:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чесменские трофеи
- Soup Song by Russell Edson
- The Dream of Eugene Aram by Thomas Hood
- America To Great Britain by Washington Allston
- mother.html
- Владимир Маяковский – Нечеловеческой силы требовала война… (Главполитпросвет №285)
- Sonnet 110: Alas, ’tis true, I have gone here and there by William Shakespeare
- Николай Заболоцкий – Счастливый день
- Aerialist by Sylvia Plath
- Joy-Bells by Siegfried Sassoon
- Илья Эренбург – Вы приняли меня в изысканной гостиной
- Владимир Маяковский – Общее руководство для начинающих подхалим
- The Looking-Glass. : on Mrs. Pulteney poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Best Society by Philip Larkin
- A Poem Of Love by Walter William Safar
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
- Яков Полонский – Одному из усталых
- Яков Полонский – Ночная дума
- Яков Полонский – Ночь в Крыму
- Яков Полонский – Ночь на восточном берегу Черного моря
- Яков Полонский – Нищий
- Яков Полонский – Неотвязная
- Яков Полонский – Не жди
- Яков Полонский – Наплывает туча с моря
- Яков Полонский – На Женевском озере
- Яков Полонский – На закате
- Яков Полонский – На пути
- Яков Полонский – На искусе
- Яков Полонский – Н. А. Грибоедова
- Юлий Даниэль – Друзьям
- Юлий Даниэль – Дом
- Юлий Даниэль – Часовой
- Юлий Даниэль – Ах, недостреляли, недобили
- Юлий Даниэль – А в это время
- Юлиан Анисимов – Весенний дождь
- Юлиан Анисимов – Стихи мои, нежные гости
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.