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:
- Venetian Glass poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A child said, What is the grass by Walt Whitman
- Money by William Henry Davies
- Олег Сердобольский – Перемена
- Владимир Орлов – Что нельзя купить
- Robert Burns: There’ll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame:
- I Hardly Remember by Rafael Guillen
- Now Hollow Fires Burn Out to Black poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- Robert Burns: O Aye My Wife She Dang Me:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Христианские мысли перед битвами
- Why? by Tiffany Ann Monroe
- Ольга Седакова – Где-нибудь в углу запущенной болезни
- Николай Заболоцкий – Человек в воде
- Вера Павлова – Слово держу осторожно
- Владимир Маяковский – Эй, товарищ! Поищи дома (Главполитпросвет №95)
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
- Hail, Zaragoza! If With Unwet eye by William Wordsworth
- Hail, Twilight, Sovereign Of One Peaceful Hour by William Wordsworth
- Guilt And Sorrow, Or, Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain by William Wordsworth
- Great Men Have Been Among Us by William Wordsworth
- Goody Blake And Harry Gill by William Wordsworth
- Gipsies by William Wordsworth
- George and Sarah Green by William Wordsworth
- From The Italian Of Michael Angelo by William Wordsworth
- From The Dark Chambers Of Dejection Freed by William Wordsworth
- From The Cuckoo And The Nightingale by William Wordsworth
- Foresight by William Wordsworth
- Fidelity by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth
- Feelings Of A Noble Biscayan At One Of Those Funerals by William Wordsworth
- Feelings of A French Royalist, On The Disinterment Of The Remains Of The Duke D’Enghien by William Wordsworth
- Extract From The Conclusion Of A Poem Composed In Anticipation Of Leaving School by William Wordsworth
- Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg by William Wordsworth
- Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth
- Even As A Dragon’s Eye That Feels The Stress by William Wordsworth
- Epitaphs Translated From Chiabrera 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.