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 Masks of Love
- Vegetable Swallow by Tristan Tzara
- Song—Fragment—Leezie Lindsay by Robert Burns
- Morpheus poem – Alexander Pushkin
- You must once
- Степан Щипачев – Жил мальчик в деревне
- Николай Гербель – Изюмцам
- Федор Сологуб – Снова саваны надели
- Bards of Passion and of Mirth, written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher’s Tragi-Comedy ‘The Fair Maid of the Inn’ poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Британишский – В нашем вновь обретенном ленинградском доме
- My Partner in Crime by Rennu Ayyar
- Girl’s Song by William Butler Yeats
- Федор Сваровский – Путешественники во времени 9
- This by Ralph Angel
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Утренние песни
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 Seven Sisters by William Wordsworth
- The Sailor’s Mother by William Wordsworth
- The Russian Fugitive by William Wordsworth
- The Reverie of Poor Susan by William Wordsworth
- The Redbreast Chasing The Butterfly by William Wordsworth
- The Prioress’s Tale [from Chaucer] by William Wordsworth
- The Primrose of the Rock by William Wordsworth
- The Power of Armies is a Visible Thing by William Wordsworth
- The Pet-Lamb by William Wordsworth
- The Passing of the Elder Bards by William Wordsworth
- The Old Cumberland Beggar by William Wordsworth
- The Oak Of Guernica Supposed Address To The Same by William Wordsworth
- The Morning Of The Day Appointed For A General Thanksgiving. January 18, 1816 by William Wordsworth
- The King Of Sweden by William Wordsworth
- The Idle Shepherd Boys by William Wordsworth
- The Horn Of Egremont Castle by William Wordsworth
- The Highland Broach by William Wordsworth
- The Happy Warrior by William Wordsworth
- The Green Linnet by William Wordsworth
- The Germans On The Heighs Of Hochheim by William Wordsworth
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.