In 1870, after a series of crushing disappointments, Gordon committed suicide.
His dramatic end awakened sympathy and gave an additional interest
to his writings. It was soon found that in the city and the bush
many of his spirited racing ballads were well known. The virile,
athletic tone of his verse, which taught

"How a man should uphold the sports of his land
And strike his best with a strong right hand
And take his strokes in return" --

and the practical philosophy, summed up in the well-known quatrain --

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

appeal strongly to Australians. Gordon's work cannot be considered
as peculiarly Australian in character; but much of it is concerned
with the horse, and all of it is a-throb with the manly, reckless personality
of the writer. Horses and horse-racing are especially interesting
to Australians, the Swinburnian rush of Gordon's ballads charms their ear,
and in many respects he embodies their ideal of a man.
There are few Australians who do not know some of his poems,
even if they know no others, and his influence upon subsequent writers
has been very great.

Brunton Stephens, who came to Queensland in 1866, wrote there a long poem
called "Convict Once" which, when published in London in 1871,
gained high praise from competent critics, and gave the author