THE POETS' CORNER

Evening Star, Issue 21719, 14 May 1934, Page 9

THE POETS' CORNER

ADAM LINDSAY GORDON MEMORIAL CEREMONY AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, May 11. There was an impressive ceremony in the' well-filled Abbey at the Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial dedication. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in an address, said; “ Adam Lindsay Gordon’s restless, fiery spirit finds a home and peace in the Abbey. His memorial is beside that of Tennyson and close to those of Coleridge and Wordsworth, who would surely generously welcome the young horsebreaker and steeplechaser as a brother poet. If poetry means the interpretation of .life, Gordon was the true, if-unofficial, laureate of Australian life.” [The Adam Lindsay Gordon memorial in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey takes the form of a portrait in bas-relief on a tablet. It is the work of Lady Hilton Young, formerly Lady Scott, widow of the famous Antarctic explorer. The cost of the memorial, £350, was borne by the Federal Government of Australia. A London committee, under the chairmanship of Mr S. M. Bruce, supervised the project. In a speech at the annual dinner of the Cheltonian Society recently, Mr Douglas Sladen, with whom the plan originated, and who has done much to bring it to success, referred to the new memorial. He said that Gordon went to Cheltenham nearly 100 years ago, when a little boy. While there he was always in trouble. He became interested in racehorses, and his interest continued while he was subsequently at Woolwich. His parents sent him out to Australia with excellent introductions, but instead of availing himself of them he enlisted in the Mounted Police. He then began writing verse, and his poems were all about the races he had attended at Cheltenham. He also became a rider at steeplechases, one of the most famous, in fact, that Australia had ever known. His stanzas in imitation of Swinburne were his best works, and die was now regarded as the Burns of Australia.] ■