Almanac Poetry: The Geelong College Gates, Geelong, Victoria
Early version of The Geelong College crest, c. 1861. [Wikimedia Commons.]
The Geelong College Gates, Geelong, Victoria
There’s a poem here, in these college gates
dedicated to an old boy
who lost his life while trying to save
two others from drowning
in the waters off Ocean Grove
back in 1938.
There’s definitely a poem in these gates
and for so long I’ve wanted to write it.
Full fathom, full fathom, full fathom five …
those words from The Tempest recur
as I struggle to find expression
for what I feel when I look at the gates
and read the plaque beside them:
‘Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life …’
The scene is deeply moving
but, perhaps, after all,
my yearned-for poem
concerning the gates
in aptly-named Noble Street
has more to do with my romantic desire
to write about them,
than with the tragic event
that brought about their existence.
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
My Mum once accidentally drove our old HR Holden into those gates, whilst picking me up from cricket practice at The College.
Now I can add family “shame” for inadvertently disrespecting the gates and their tragic story , to the embarrassment felt when my 15 y.o. mates pissed themselves laughing at mother dear’s acumen behind the steering wheel!
Thanks, Chris, for your comments. It’s always interesting to me how one image can provoke surprisingly different reactions depending on the perspective from which it is viewed.
The Geelong College grounds, in general, are so picturesque. As a uni student, I privately tutored a College boy who boarded at one of the Residential Houses there, and I loved walking the lovely, lamplit gravel walkways to and from the historic building where we did the tutorial. And speaking of cricket, as you were in your comments, that fine cricketer A P Sheahan was Principal of the college at the time I’ve just written about.
Enjoyed this one Kevin. Thanks.
The romantic desire to write about something rather than the actual tragic event that surrounds that something is an interesting concept. Has probably inspired many a war poem.
Glad you enjoyed this one, Dips.
Particularly pleased you liked the main idea of the poem, too, as this is very much a poem that wears its idea on its sleeve, so to speak.