Adam Lindsay Gordon Poem by Francis Duggan

I opened up his book of poems and I read through the pages
And it took me back to bygone days back to the by gone ages
To a century and a quarter back to the days of pioneering
When Europe men were building towns and virgin bushlands clearing.

In august eighteen hundred and forty three he left England forever
And his ties with home and Cheltenham the restless man did sever
He arrived in Port of Adelaide on fourteenth day of november
A restless and a loner type his shipmates well remember.

He first worked with mounted police and later as horse breaker
And all through his life his too brief life he was the great
risk taker
In South Australia he became an M.P. but of politics soon did weary
And he found the life in parliament unexciting and dreary.

He became a well known steeplechase jockey and he rode many great winner
And he oft times became the toast of many racing dinner
And throughout south eastern Australia to fame he was no stranger
And heavy falls and broken bones his price for risking danger.

A well known jockey and an ex M.P. to most would be the crowning
But he was also a great poet in the mould of Robert Browning
And tonight I sit and read the poems with a sense of satisfaction
Of Adam Lindsay Gordon the bard and man of action.


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