An Anthology of Australian Verse/Gordon's Grave

by Francis William Lauderdale Adams

GORDON’S GRAVE

All the heat and the glow and the hush
 of the summer afternoon;
the scent of the sweet-briar bush
 over bowing grass-blades and broom;

the birds that flit and pass;
 singing the song he knows,
the grass-hopper in the grass;
 the voice of the she-oak boughs.

Ah, and the shattered column
 crowned with the poet’s wreath.
Who, who keeps silent and solemn
 his passing place beneath?

This was a poet that loved God’s breath;
 his life was a passionate quest;
he looked down deep in the wells of death,
 and now he is taking his rest.