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:
- Damon The Mower poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- And Still to USA they get! by Tom Mukasa
- “`Roses crimson, roses white” poem – Alfred Austin
- I hear it was Charged against Me. by Walt Whitman
- Stray Colors by Satish Verma
- Владимир Высоцкий – Ну почему
- Владимир Маяковский – Трудовая взаимопомощь инвентарем (Агитплакаты)
- As At Thy Portals Also Death. by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: Bonie Jean-A Ballad:
- I Said Coffee by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
- Николай Некрасов – Возвращение
- Beans Taste Fine by Shel Silverstein
- Moonrise by Sylvia Plath
- 白色四月
- Book Seventh [Residence in London] by William Wordsworth
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
- The Poor House by Sara Teasdale
- The Old Maid by Sara Teasdale
- The Nights Remember by Sara Teasdale
- The New Moon by Sara Teasdale
- The Net by Sara Teasdale
- The Mother Of A Poet by Sara Teasdale
- The Metropolitan Tower by Sara Teasdale
- The Meeting by Sara Teasdale
- The Love That Goes A-Begging by Sara Teasdale
- The Look by Sara Teasdale
- The Long Hill by Sara Teasdale
- The Lights Of New York by Sara Teasdale
- The Lighted Window by Sara Teasdale
- The Lamp by Sara Teasdale
- The Kiss by Sara Teasdale
- The Kind Moon by Sara Teasdale
- The Inn Of Earth by Sara Teasdale
- The India Wharf by Sara Teasdale
- The House Of Dreams by Sara Teasdale
- The Heart’s House by Sara Teasdale
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.