Good-bye! -- 'tis like a churchyard bell -- good-bye!
Poor weeping eyes! Poor head, bowed down with woe!
Kiss me again, dear love, before you go.
Ah, me, how fast the precious moments fly!
Good-bye! Good-bye!
We are like mourners when they stand and cry
At open grave in wintry wind and rain.
Yes, it is death. But you shall rise again --
Your sun return to this benighted sky.
Good-bye! Good-bye!
The great physician, Time, shall pacify
This parting anguish with another friend.
Your heart is broken now, but it will mend.
Though it is death, yet still you will not die.
Good-bye! Good-bye!
Dear heart! dear eyes! dear tongue that cannot lie!
Your love is true, your grief is deep and sore;
But love will pass, then you will grieve no more.
New love will come. Your tears will soon be dry!
Good-bye! Good-bye!
First published in The Bulletin, 1 November 1906;
and later in
An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, 1907;
The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, 1909;
A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, 1982;
Unspoken Thoughts by Ada Cambrdige, 1988; and
100 Australian Poems of Love and Loss edited by Jamie Grant, 2011.
Author: Ada Cambridge (1844-1926) was born in Norfolk, England and arrived in Australia in 1870. By that time was she had married a curate, George Cross, and was already published. The couple lived and worked in rural Victoria, and in 1873 Cambridge began writing to supplement the family income. She published 26 novels during her lifetime along with 3 collections of her poetry. She and her husband returned to England in 1909, but Cambridge returned to Victoria after her husband died in 1917. She died in Elsternwick in 1926.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
Poor weeping eyes! Poor head, bowed down with woe!
Kiss me again, dear love, before you go.
Ah, me, how fast the precious moments fly!
Good-bye! Good-bye!
We are like mourners when they stand and cry
At open grave in wintry wind and rain.
Yes, it is death. But you shall rise again --
Your sun return to this benighted sky.
Good-bye! Good-bye!
The great physician, Time, shall pacify
This parting anguish with another friend.
Your heart is broken now, but it will mend.
Though it is death, yet still you will not die.
Good-bye! Good-bye!
Dear heart! dear eyes! dear tongue that cannot lie!
Your love is true, your grief is deep and sore;
But love will pass, then you will grieve no more.
New love will come. Your tears will soon be dry!
Good-bye! Good-bye!
First published in The Bulletin, 1 November 1906;
and later in
An Anthology of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, 1907;
The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, 1909;
A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, 1982;
Unspoken Thoughts by Ada Cambrdige, 1988; and
100 Australian Poems of Love and Loss edited by Jamie Grant, 2011.
Author: Ada Cambridge (1844-1926) was born in Norfolk, England and arrived in Australia in 1870. By that time was she had married a curate, George Cross, and was already published. The couple lived and worked in rural Victoria, and in 1873 Cambridge began writing to supplement the family income. She published 26 novels during her lifetime along with 3 collections of her poetry. She and her husband returned to England in 1909, but Cambridge returned to Victoria after her husband died in 1917. She died in Elsternwick in 1926.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
