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:
- Moon, I hear you are moving away by Raj Arumugam
- Come Gather Round Me, Parnellites by William Butler Yeats
- Songs From “Prince Lucifer” II – Mother-Song poem – Alfred Austin
- In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The First Anniversary Of The Government Under O.C. poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Goblins Of The Steppes poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Лесная дева
- Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore
- Robert Burns: Bannocks O’ Bear Meal:
- Омар Хайям – Нет ни рая, ни ада, о сердце моё
- Владимир Корнилов – Происхождение
- Only Thee by Rabindranath Tagore
- Константин Бальмонт – Чудовище с клеймом
- Springfield Magical by Vachel Lindsay
- Passing Breeze by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Autumn – The Third Pastoral, or Hylas and Ægon poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Argus poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Epistle 1 poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- An Essay On Criticism poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- An Essay on Man: Epistle II poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Yours & Mine poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- Wibble Wobble poem – Alexander E Musset poems | Poetry Monster
- Why?
- Where Are You?
- Terrible Ted poem – Alexander E. Musset poems | Poetry Monster
- Tell Me
- Teacher
- Sleep
- Roar Shack poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- Alexander E. Musset
- Our Soul’s Gestation
- Intruder
- Inside/Outside The Window
- Industrial Lace poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
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.