Froth and Bubble Day

Tomorrow (today in Australia), is the 136th anniversary of the suicide of Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon. Gordon, now largely forgotten by the public, is actually the only Australian poet to have a place of commemoration in Westminster Abbey's "Poet's Corner", and that was largely thanks to the effort of Rudyard Kipling who lobbied hard for it after Gordon's death.

Gordon was revered like a rock star in the decades after his 1870 death, aged 37. In 1921, more than 4000 people attended his memorial service at Brighton Cemetery, and, in 1932, State Parliament rose for the unveiling of the Spring Street statue (in Melbourne).

And now, shocked by Gordon's growing obscurity, John Adams, a retired Torquay banker, is obsessed with resurrecting Gordon as Australia's national poet. He has declared today the first annual Froth and Bubble Day.

Why Froth and Bubble? No, it has nothing to do with beer, contrary to the Australian stereotype, but with one of Gordon's most famous proverbs:

"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own."

Amen




























John Adams stands in front of Gordon's statue.