The White Hat Guide to Adam Lindsay Gordon

 

Adam Lindsay Gordon's grave at Brighton Cemetery

THE POET GORDON DIED JUNE 24. 1870 AGED 37 YEARS QUESTION NOT, BUT LIVE AND LABOUR TILL YON GOAL BE WON; HELPING EVERY FEEBLE NEIGHBOUR, SEEKING HELP FROM NONE. LIFE IS MAINLY FROTH AND BUBBLE TWO THINGS STAND LIKE STONE - KINDNESS IN ANOTHER'S TROUBLE. COURAGE IN YOUR OWN. YE WEARIE WAYFARER

On the three remaining sides of the monument are the following inscriptions:
SEA SPRAY
AND
SMOKE DRIFT ASHTAROTH BUSH BALLADS
AND
GALLOPING RHYMES

ADAM LINDSAY GORDON POET AND HORSEMAN TETHERED HIS HORSE TO THIS HITCHING POST DURING HIS RESIDENCE IN BRIGHTON 1869-70 A SHINING SOUL WITH SYLLABLES OF FIRE WHO SANG THE FIRST GREAT SONGS THESE LANDS CAN CLAIM (KENDALL) PRESERVED AND DEDICATED TO HIS MEMORY BY THE UNITED LICENSED VICTUALLERS ASSOCIATION 20TH OCTOBER 1945

In additions to the monuments above, other tributes to Gordon can be found around Victoria and beyond.

• On the highway near Coleraine Race Track is a monument commemorating Gordon's participation as a jockey there.
• The Ballarat Botanical Gardens preserves his cottage (shifted from Bath Street)
• In 2002 the Royal Grammar School Worcester, England opened a new building called Gordon House to celebrate 150 years since A L Gordon was at the school.
• And, of course, he is still the only Australian poet to have a bust in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey in London. The bust was placed there in 1934.