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:
- Вера Павлова – Память, дырявый мешок
- Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1790 by William Cowper
- What Place is Besieged? by Walt Whitman
- For A Picture Of St. Dorothea poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- The Terrible Abstractions by Vernon Scannell
- Ahmad Al-Za’tar by Mahmoud Darwish
- A Man Young And Old: IV. The Death Of The Hare by William Butler Yeats
- Степан Щипачев – Свет звезды
- Lukannon by Rudyard Kipling
- Жан де Лафонтен – Утопленница
- Mahomed Akrams Appeal To The Stars
- Федор Сологуб – Лихо
- Your Words by Piera Chen
- Стефан Малларме – Записка Уистлеру
- Asking For Roses by Robert Frost
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 Fascination Of What’s Difficult by William Butler Yeats
- The Falling Of The Leaves by William Butler Yeats
- The Everlasting Voices by William Butler Yeats
- The Double Vision Of Michael Robartes by William Butler Yeats
- The Dolls by William Butler Yeats
- The Delphic Oracle Upon Plotinus by William Butler Yeats
- The Dawn by William Butler Yeats
- The Dancer At Cruachan And Cro-Patrick by William Butler Yeats
- The Curse Of Cromwell by William Butler Yeats
- The Crazed Moon by William Butler Yeats
- The Countess Cathleen In Paradise by William Butler Yeats
- The Coming Of Wisdom With Time by William Butler Yeats
- The Cold Heaven by William Butler Yeats
- The Cloak, The Boat And The Shoes by William Butler Yeats
- The Circus Animals’ Desertion by William Butler Yeats
- The Choice by William Butler Yeats
- The Chambermaid’s First Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Chambermaid’s Second Song by William Butler Yeats
- The Peacock by William Butler Yeats
- The O’Rahilly by William Butler Yeats
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.