• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

General Gordon: The Hero of Khartoum [poem by Agnes Neale]

2 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]

General Gordon,

The Hero of Khartoum.

Let the muffled drums be beaten,
Let the funeral bell toll slow,
For a great man, strong and steadfast,
For a hero lying low.

For a brave, a saintly Christian,
True to man, and true to God;
Not a shadow of dishonor
Lies along the path he trod.

Not upon the field of battle,
Not amidst its din and gloom,
Crack of rifle, roar of cannon,
Fell the hero of Khartoum.

Maybe we had mourned less deeply
Had he fallen where foemen fled,
Or in the breach, dark hordes resisting,
Had been numbered with the dead.

Yet, he was not less a hero,
That some traitor’s coward blow,
All unharmed, and unresisting,
Laid the dauntless soldier low.

Was he hero? Witness, China;
Witness, Afric’s burning strand?
Answer all the years of struggle
Wasted in that dreary land.

Was he hero? Were they wasted?
God, who sees the sparrows fly,
Saw His steadfast servant working,
Saw his faith and courage high.

He, whose curse in fire is written
O’er the trade in human blood,
Saw where in the cause of freedom
Freedom’s noblest soldier stood.

Was he hero? Go and question
Those whose lives, downbeat and dumb,
By his hand were raised and rescued
From a city’s foulest slum.

Think of that sad year of waiting,
Think of all the nameless dread,
Ever gathering thicker, darker,
Round that brave devoted head.

Think of that last day, most mournful
Of the whole sad mournful year,
When our hero perished, helpless,
And the longed-for help so near.

Aye, he was, in truth, a hero,
One whose work the world should sway;
Making all men stronger, truer,
Down to time’s remotest day.

Let his deed in light be written
On the scroll of deathless fame;
Let the soldier’s future watchword
Be the sound of Gordon’s name.

Not alone does England mourn him,
We, her children leal and true,
Claim with her the traitor’s victim,
Mourn him as our hero too.

Let the round world join to mourn him
Whom we were too late to save;
Let a nation’s love and sorrow
Wail this requiem o’er his grave:

Farewell, Gordon! saintly, fearless!
Not farewell in doubt or gloom,
But assured, ’tis better with thee,
Farewell, hero of Khartoum!



Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 36-38

Editor’s notes:
Afric = Africa

Gordon = Major-General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885), a British military leader, who successfully led military operations in China in the 1860s (earning him the nickname of “Chinese” Gordon); was Governor-General of the Sudan in the 1870s; and who returned to Khartoum (the Sudanese capital), during the time of a Muslim rebellion, to evacuate large numbers of non-Muslim and pro-government, but stayed on after the evacuation and held the city against the rebels for almost a year, and was killed when the rebels took over the capital (his efforts earned him the widespread accolade of being “the Hero of Khartoum”)

Khartoum = the capital city of the Sudan

leal = faithful and true

o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

requiem = a song, chant, dirge, piece of music, or musical service, especially of a mournful nature and slow, used for a funeral, memorial, or commemoration, for the repose (peaceful rest) of the souls of the dead (especially regarding Christian ceremonies for the dead); a lamentation for the dead; a requiem mass for the repose of the souls of the dead

strand = land bordering a body of water, such as a beach or shore adjoining the sea; less commonly, may also refer to a beach or shore adjoining a lake or river (may also refer to a small brook or rivulet)

Old spelling in the original text:
thee (you)
’tis (it is)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Agnes Neale (Caroline Agnes Leane) (1849-1892) (author), poem, Shadows and Sunbeams (Agnes Neale 1890), SourceHathiTrust, year1890

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Writers, workers, and wages. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
Significant events and commemorative dates
A list of significant Australiana
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian explorers
Australian literature
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

Barcroft Boake
E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Died on Active Service / Heroes of the Empire [Australian military personnel (WW1, WW2), 24 April 1943]
  • Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • Fossicker’s claim, Daylesford [postcard, circa 1905-1912]
  • The Bathing Beach Flinders [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The Lass of Yackandandah [poem, 11 June 1857]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Australian slang, words, and phrases
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • Drop Bears

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Keith Street on Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • IAC on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Paul on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Floyd Black on Eurunderee [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • Warren fahey on The Institute of Australian Culture: An introduction

For Australia

Copyright © 2025 · Log in