Adam Lindsay Gordon

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. --------------------