A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
For every bird there is this last migration;
Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;
With a warm passage to the summer station
Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.
Year after year a speck on the map, divided
By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;
Season after season, sure and safely guided,
Going away she is also coming home.
And being home, memory becomes a passion
With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest,
Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart’s possession
And exiled love mourning within the breast.
The sands are green with a mirage of valleys;
The palm tree casts a shadow not its own;
Down the long architrave of temple or palace
Blows a cool air from moorland scarps of stone.
And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger;
That delicate voice, more urgent with despair,
Custom and fear constraining her no longer,
Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.
A vanishing speck in those inane dominions,
Single and frail, uncertain of her place,
Alone in the bright host of her companions,
Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space.
She feels it close now, the appointed season;
The invisible thread is broken as she flies;
Suddenly, without warning, without reason,
The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies.
Try as she will, the trackless world delivers
No way, the wilderness of light no sign;
Immense,complex contours of hills and rivers
Mock her small wisdom with their vast design.
The darkness rises from the eastern valleys,
And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath,
And the great earth, with neither grief nor malice,
Receives the tiny burden of her death.
A few random poems:
- The Mystery by Sara Teasdale
- From One Who Stays poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Godo Is Not Coming by Ndue Ukaj
- He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes by William Butler Yeats
- Sonnet LX by William Shakespeare
- laugh to cry by Raj Arumugam
- Вера Звягинцева – Качаешься в гробу стеклянном
- Ольга Седакова – И меня удивило
- Юрий Галансков – Справедливости окровавленные уста
- Heaven, an envious home by Mahak Raithatha S
- Work and Play by Ted Hughes
- Владимир Британишский – Пароход пришел
- A Melody By Scarlatti poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Владимир Корнилов – Париж
- The Owl And The Lark poem – Alfred Austin
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
- София Парнок – Ты помнишь коридорчик узенький
- София Парнок – Триолеты
- София Парнок – Тихо плачу и пою
- София Парнок – Сегодня с неба день поспешней
- София Парнок – Рондель
- София Парнок – Он ходит с женщиной в светлом
- София Парнок – Об одной лошаденке чалой
- София Парнок – Кипящий звук неторопливых арб
- София Парнок – И голос окликнул тебя среди ночи
- София Парнок – Газэлы
- София Парнок – Екатерине Гельцер
- София Парнок – Белой ночью
- Шекспир – Ты утоляешь мой голодный взор – Сонет 75
- Шекспир – Запечатленный в слове лик твой милый – Сонет 59
- Шекспир – Сонет 50
- Шекспир – Я так тебя люблю – Сонет 36
- Шекспир – Я не хочу хвалить любовь мою – Сонет 21
- Шекспир – Я лью потоки горьких слез – Сонет 44
- Шекспир – Я дорого ценю любовь твою – Сонет 87
- Шекспир – Весну не перельешь в хрусталь – Сонет 6
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.