Adam Lindsay Gordon

Adam Lindsay Gordon statue in Melbourne

Adam Lindsay Gordon (born October 19, 1833 in the Azores ; † June 24, 1870 ) was an Australian poet and is considered Australia's national poet .

Life

Adam Lindsay Gordon came from the Scottish clan Gordon . His father was a former Captain of the Army . In his childhood the family first moved to Madeira , then in 1840 to Cheltenham, England . At the college there , Gordon's father became a professor of oriental languages . Gordon attended the school himself from 1841 but was later fired for bad behavior.

In 1852 he was sent to the Royal Grammar School in Worcester for training. Canon Temple, the director at the time, noted that Gordon possessed "a most extraordinary genius". But four months after his arrival, he was already in trouble. His keen interest in horses almost led to his arrest when he stole a horse to take part in an obstacle race.

Gordon also had his first love affair while in Worcester. He fell in love with Jane Brydges, but she showed no interest in Gordon. The latter wrote the following poem about his love:

I loved a girl not long ago

And till my suit was told

I thought her breast as fair as snow

'Twas very near as cold.

And yet I spoke with feelings more

Of recklessness than pain,

Those words I never spoke before

Nor never shall again.

Her cheek grew pale, in her dark eye

I saw a tear-drop shine

Her red lips faltered in reply

And then were pressed to mine

A quick pulsation of the heart!

A flutter of the breath

A smothered sob! - and thus we part

To meet no more till death.

Its director in Worcester is said to have increased his interest in the classics and inspired him to write.

Desperate at his son's whims, Gordon's father sent him to South Australia in 1853 . There Gordon found himself extraordinarily suitable for the lifestyle and decided to join the mounted police instead of showing the letter of recommendation he had brought with him. Two years later he was on the road as a traveling rider and horse trainer and met the Catholic missionary and naturalist JE Tenison Woods, who encouraged him to write. In 1862, at the age of 29, Gordon married 17-year-old Maggie Park, who had cared for him after an accident.

Gordon inherited £ 7,000 after his father's death in 1864 . He bought some racehorses and became the best obstacle rider in Australia. He increased his reputation as a rider by making a famous jump on a reef above Blue Lake in Mount Gambier , which has been commemorated by an obelisk since 1887 . In 1865 he became a member of the Parliament of Victoria as a member of Parliament for Ballarat , but gave the mandate back the next year. In 1867 he moved to Mount Gambier to devote himself to writing and horse training. He got into debt through gambling , alcoholism and funding a lawsuit over his family's old property in Scotland. In June 1870 he lost the trial. One day after the printing of his last volume of poetry , he shot himself , depressed by money worries, on June 24, 1870.

meaning

Today he is considered to be the national poet of Australia and the “prize winner of the horse”. He is the only Australian poet to be honored with a monument in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey . Another memorial is - next to that of his relative General Charles George Gordon - in Gordon Square in Melbourne at Parliament House .

Two of his poems were immortalized by the composer Sir Edward Elgar , namely A Song to Autumn and The Swimmer from Sea Pictures .

Works (selection)

• The feud , 1864
• Sea spray and smoke drift , 1867
• Ashtaroth: a dramatic lyric , 1867
• Bush ballads and galloping rhymes , 1870
• Collected poems (edited by M. Clarke), 1880
• To my sister! - Written on August 4, 1853, three days before leaving for Australia, 1870

literature

• Edith Humphris: The Life of Adam Lindsay Gordon . Partridge, London 1933.
• Geoffrey Hutton: Adam Lindsay Gordon. The man and the myth . University Press, Melbourne 1996, ISBN 0-522-84708-0 .
• Ian F. McLaren: Adam Lindsay Gordon. A comprehensive bibliography . Univ. of Melbourne Libr., Parkville 1986, ISBN 0-86839-675-3 .
• CF MacRae: Adam Lindsay Gordon . Twayne, New York 1968 ( Twayne's world authors series ; 41).
• William H. Wilde: Adam Lindsay Gordon . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1972, ISBN 0-19-550408-9 .

Web links

Commons : Adam Lindsay Gordon  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• www.adamlindsaygordon.org ( Adam Lindsay Gordon Commemorative Committee , English)
• Gordon's works in Project Gutenberg (English)