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:
- Blue eyes by Tanisha Avarsekar
- My Friend by Rabindranath Tagore
- Sonet 39 by William Alexander
- The Stwonèn Pworch by William Barnes
- My Child Wafts Peace by Yehuda Amichai
- True Love by Robert Penn Warren
- Song III: It Grew Up Without Heeding by William Morris
- In Defense of Santa Claus
- The Dunciad: Book IV poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Олег Чупров – В лесу просторно, тихо, ясно
- Darkness
- XIII: Some Verses: On A Report On The Death Of The Author by William Alexander
- Алексей Плещеев – Лучше гибель без возврата
- Robert Burns: Up In The Morning Early:
- The Night
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
- Refrigerator, 1957 by Thomas Lux
- Red Planet Haiku by Thomas J Camp
- Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls Into Besieged City by Thomas Lux
- On The Death Of A Favourite Cat, Drowned In A Tub Of Gold Fishes by Thomas Gray
- Ode On The Spring by Thomas Gray
- Ode On The Pleasure Arising From Vicissitude by Thomas Gray
- Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College by Thomas Gray
- My Country Place by Thomas J Camp
- Motel Seedy by Thomas Lux
- Monsters under the bed by Thomas J Camp
- Marine Snow At Mid-Depths And Down by Thomas Lux
- Lucky by Thomas Lux
- Thomas Gray – Thomas Gray
- Hymn To Adversity by Thomas Gray
- Henry Clay’s Mouth by Thomas Lux
- He Has Lived In Many Houses by Thomas Lux
- Gorgeous Surfaces by Thomas Lux
- Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
- Drummer Boy by Thomas J Camp
- Becalmed and Bewildered by Thomas J Camp
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.