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:
- The Second Voyage by Rudyard Kipling
- I Know an Aged Man Constrained to Dwell by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Высоцкий – Странные скачки
- On a certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope
- Beggarly Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
- Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Matter For Gratitude poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- Федор Сологуб – Под кустами
- Альфред де Мюссе – Да, женщины, тут нет ошибки
- Sonnet XIV. Addressed To The Same (Haydon) poem – John Keats poems
- Creativity Tool – The Five Senses
- Владимир Маяковский – Декрет о натуральном налоге на хлеб, картофель и масличные семена
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Вьющееся растение
- A Woman Unconscious by Ted Hughes
- Robert Burns: Epitaph For Mr. William Michie: Schoolmaster of Cleish Parish, Fifeshire.
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 Moon’s the North Wind’s Cooky by Vachel Lindsay
- The Moon is a Painter by Vachel Lindsay
- The Merciful Hand by Vachel Lindsay
- The Master of the Dance by Vachel Lindsay
- The Little Turtle by Vachel Lindsay
- The Lion by Vachel Lindsay
- The Light o’ the Moon by Vachel Lindsay
- The Leaden-Eyed by Vachel Lindsay
- The King of Yellow Butterflies by Vachel Lindsay
- The Jingo and the Minstrel by Vachel Lindsay
- The Illinois Village by Vachel Lindsay
- The Hope of the Resurrection by Vachel Lindsay
- The Hearth Eternal by Vachel Lindsay
- The Haughty Snail-King by Vachel Lindsay
- The Ghosts of the Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- The Gamblers by Vachel Lindsay
- The Flower of Mending by Vachel Lindsay
- The Flower-Fed Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- The Fairy Bridal-Hymn by Vachel Lindsay
- The Empty Boats by Vachel Lindsay
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.