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:
- Witch Burning by Sylvia Plath
- The Appointment by Ruth Padel
- Giving Myself Up by Mark Strand
- Continuing To Live by Philip Larkin
- Weekend Glory by Maya Angelou
- The Light By The Barn by William Stafford
- Fanny’s Be’th-Day by William Barnes
- Convalescent poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Identity of Images by Robert Desnos
- Алишер Навои – Как от вздохов безнадежных дым
- Children Are Like Water by Robert Lloyd Jaffe
- Василий Жуковский – К Дмитриеву (Нет, не прошла)
- Epitaph on Holy Willie by Robert Burns
- Song Of Faiz Ulla
- A Sculptor’s Vow by Nikhil Srinivas
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
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ночной пилигрим
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Ночная песня
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не называй далекой бездной
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Не касайся моих чертежей
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Нарядно выстлав дол, взбегая на холмы
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На улице
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На поле Ватерло
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – На берегу
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Море и капля
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Молкнущий вечер во мгле
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Молись в ночи без плача о заре
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Мой сад
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Метель
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Элегия (Мысль в разлуке с вещим сном)
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Цветок
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чудом тени
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Черное озеро
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чем больше в мире я живу
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Час обыкновенный
- Юрий Кузнецов – Простота милосердия
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.