Francis Adams (writer)

Francis William Lauderdale Adams (27 September 1862 – 4 September 1893) was a British poet, dramatist, novelist and journalist who produced a large volume of work in his short life. Born in Malta to a Scottish father and educated in England, in 1884 he migrated to the colony of New South Wales, which inspired much of his writing. He returned to England in 1890 and died three years later.

Quotes

• Yes, let Art go, if it must be
  That with it men must starve —
  If Music, Painting, Poetry
  Spring from the wasted hearth.
  Nay, brothers, sing us battle songs
  With clear and ringing rhyme;
  Nay, show the world its hateful wrongs,
  And bring the better time!
  • Quoted in Bernard O'Dowd, Poetry Militant: An Australian Plea for the Poetry of Purpose (Melbourne: T. C. Lothian, 1909)