An Exile’s Farewell
by Adam Lindsay Gordon
The ocean heaves around us still
With long and measured swell,
The autumn gales our canvas fill,
Our ship rides smooth and well.
The broad Atlantic’s bed of foam
Still breaks against our prow;
I shed no tears at quitting home,
Nor will I shed them now!
Against the bulwarks on the poop
I lean, and watch the sun
Behind the red horizon stoop —
His race is nearly run.
Those waves will never quench his light,
O’er which they seem to close,
To-morrow he will rise as bright
As he this morning rose.
How brightly gleams the orb of day
Across the trackless sea!
How lightly dance the waves that play
Like dolphins in our lee!
The restless waters seem to say,
In smothered tones to me,
How many thousand miles away
My native land must be!
Speak, Ocean! is my Home the same
Now all is new to me? —
The tropic sky’s resplendent flame,
The vast expanse of sea?
Does all around her, yet unchanged,
The well-known aspect wear?
Oh! can the leagues that I have ranged
Have made no difference there?
How vivid Recollection’s hand
Recalls the scene once more!
I see the same tall poplars stand
Beside the garden door;
I see the bird-cage hanging still;
And where my sister set
The flowers in the window-sill —
Can they be living yet?
Let woman’s nature cherish grief,
I rarely heave a sigh
Before emotion takes relief
In listless apathy;
While from my pipe the vapours curl
Towards the evening sky,
And ‘neath my feet the billows whirl
In dull monotony!
The sky still wears the crimson streak
Of Sol’s departing ray,
Some briny drops are on my cheek,
‘Tis but the salt sea spray!
Then let our barque the ocean roam,
Our keel the billows plough;
I shed no tears at quitting home,
Nor will I shed them now!

A few random poems:
- Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
- Владимир Маяковский – Универсальный ответ
- Work and Play by Ted Hughes
- Phillis Wheatley – Phillis Wheatley
- We Miss You So Much by Ronald G. Auguste
- It’s Beautiful to See Through the Eyes of the Sky by Walter William Safar
- When Trust Fails… by Olaniyi Beloved Abimbola
- Алексей Жемчужников – Себе
- Владимир Британишский – О, растенья-пустынники дюнных песков
- Robert Burns: The Captive Ribband:
- I’ve Lived To See Desire Vanish poem – Alexander Pushkin
- The Drunkards in the Street by Vachel Lindsay
- Жан де Лафонтен – Пьяница и Жена его
- The Hawk by William Butler Yeats
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
- For Birds by Nithin Purple
- Flying Wishes by Osman cisse Hanif
- Femme Fatale by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Eye By Eye by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Evening by Olivia Lewis
- E-waste by Nisha Gopalakrishnan
- Dreamtime by Olivia Lewis
- Death Divine by Nithin Purple
- Dead Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite
- CloSe To My Heart by Nishant Deherkar
- Children’s Taste by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Cambodian Flower by Norma Martiri
- Burnt in contemplation by Nishant Deherkar
- The Bonifratrian Hospital by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Blank by Nizar Sartawi
- Between Two Moments by Nizar Sartawi
- Between going and staying the day wavers by Octavio Paz
- Basic Overhaul by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Aquamarine Butterfly by Nina Gabriel
- An Elegy On The Glory Of Her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaize by Oliver Goldsmith
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
Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833 – 1870) was an Australian or British-Australian poet, horseman, police officer and politician. He is considered to be one of the first national Australian poets.