John Shaw Neilson
Who is John Shaw Neilson
John Shaw Neilson was an Australian poet. Slightly built, for most of his life he worked as a labourer, fruit-picking, clearing scrub, navvying and working in quarries, and, after 1928, working as a messenger with the Country Roads Board in Melbourne. Largely untrained and only basically educated, Neilson became known as one of Australia's finest lyric poets, who wrote a great deal about the natural world, and the beauty in it.
Early life
Neilson was born in Penola, South Australia of purely Scottish ancestry. His grandparents were John Neilson and Jessie MacFarlane of Cupar, Neil Mackinnon of Skye, and Margaret Stuart of Greenock. His mother, Margaret MacKinnon, was born at Dartmoor, Victoria, his father, John Neilson, at Stranraer, Scotland, in 1844.
Joh...
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John Shaw Neilson Poems
- The Orange Tree
The young girl stood beside me.
I Saw not what her young eyes could see:
- A light, she said, not of the sky
Lives somewhere in the Orange Tree.
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- Love's Coming
QUIETLY as rosebuds
Talk to thin air,
Love came so lightly
I knew not he was there.
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- Beauty Imposes
Beauty imposes reverence in the Spring,
Grave as the urge within the honeybuds,
It wounds us as we sing.
...
- To A Blue Flower
I would be dismal with all the fine pearls of the crown of a king;
But I can talk plainly to you, you little blue flower of the Spring!
Here in the heart of September the world that I walk in is full
Of the hot happy sound of the shearing, the rude heavy scent of the wool.
...
- Tell Summer That I Died
When he was old and thin
And knew not night or day
He would sit up to say
Something of the fire within.
...
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John Shaw Neilson Quotes
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Comments about John Shaw Neilson
- Thecardigankid: "i waded out to the swan's nest - at night i heard them sing,
i stood amazed at the pelican, and crowned him for a king;
i saw the black duck in the reeds, and the spoonbill on the sky,
and in that poor country no pauper was i."
-john shaw neilson
- Davidbe01254937: i have lived in the mallee for 24 years. i have loved poetry for about 50 years. john shaw neilson spent much of his poor life here, picking oranges in merbein for example. without education yet he wrote some of our finest poetry. much of it about love and pain.
- Archivesfnbooks: more australian poetry. if you're a poetry lover in brisbane and are able to come in for a browse, it's worth the trip. the poetry section has never looked healthier and richer. the vast majority will not make it to the website.
- Dmit131: poem of the day 8 january 2022 - beauty imposes by john shaw neilson beauty imposes reverence in the spring, grave as the urge within the honeybuds, it wounds us as we sing. beauty is joy that stays not overlong. clad in the magic of...
- Dmit131: poem of the day 13 december 2021 - the meeting of sighs by john shaw neilson your voice was the rugged old voice that i knew; i gave the best grip of my greeting to you. i knew not of your lips— you knew not of mine; of travel and travail we...
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