Shaw Neilson - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John Shaw Neilson was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

. Slightlybuilt, for most of his life, John Shaw Neilson 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

VicRoads

VicRoads or the Roads Corporation of Victoria is a statutory corporation which is the state road and traffic authority in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is responsible for maintenance and construction of the state arterial road network, as well as driver licensing and vehicle registration. ...

in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. 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

Penola, South Australia

Penola is located 388 km south east of Adelaide and is in the heart of one of South Australia's most productive wine growing areas. Coonawarra lies just to the north and is renowned for the quality of its red wines...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

of purely Scottish ancestry

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

. His grandparents were John Neilson and Jessie MacFarlane of Cupar

Cupar

Cupar is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town is situated between Dundee and the New Town of Glenrothes.According to a recent population estimate , Cupar had a population around 8,980 making the town the ninth largest settlement in Fife.-History:The town is believed to have...

, Neil Mackinnon of Skye, and Margaret Stuart of Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

. His mother, Margaret MacKinnon, was born at Dartmoor, Victoria

Dartmoor, Victoria

Dartmoor is a rural township on the Princes Highway and the Glenelg River between Heywood and the South Australian border, in South Western Victoria. At the 2006 census, Dartmoor had a population of 218.-History:...

, his father, John Neilson, at Stranraer

Stranraer

Stranraer is a town in the southwest of Scotland. It lies in the west of Dumfries and Galloway and in the county of Wigtownshire.Stranraer lies on the shores of Loch Ryan on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, in 1844.

John Neilson senior was brought to South Australia

South Australia

at nine years of age, had practically no education and was a shepherd, shearer, and small farmer all his life. He never had enough money to get good land, and like other pioneers he fought drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

and rabbits

Rabbits in Australia

In Australia, rabbits are a serious mammalian pest and are an invasive species. Annually, European rabbits cause millions of dollars of damage to crops.-Effects on Australia's ecology:...

and other pests, receiving little reward for his labours. He died in 1922 having lived just long enough to see his son accepted as an Australian poet. He himself had written verses; one song, Waiting for the Rain, was popular in the shearing sheds, and in January 1893 he wrote the senior prize poem, The Pioneers, for the literary competition held by the Australian Natives Association

Australian Natives Association

The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...

. In 1938 a small collection of his poems, The Men of the Fifties, was published by the Hawthorn Press at Melbourne

Melbourne

.

John Shaw Neilson had little more education than his father. When about eight years old he was for 15 months at the state school at Penola, but he had to leave in 1881 when the family removed to Minimay

Minimay, Victoria

Minimay is a small town located in Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of West Wimmera from the South Australian border, about halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide. At the 2006 census, Minimay and the surrounding area had a population of 103...

in the south-west Wimmera

Wimmera

The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...

in Victoria. There was no school at Minimay then, but four years later one was opened and Neilson attended for another 15 months. There was, however, a Bible and a tattered copy of Burns's

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...

poems in the house, and when at the age of 15 a copy of Hood

Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood was a British humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor.-Early life:...

's poems came in his way, Neilson read them all with great joy. Driven out by drought, Neilson's father took his family to Nhill

Nhill, Victoria

Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in western Victoria, Australia. Nhill is located on the Western Highway, half-way between Adelaide and Melbourne. At the 2006 census Nhill had a population of 1915.-History:...

in 1889, and was employed as a farm worker and on the roads. His son soon after began to write verses of which some appeared in the local press and one in The Australasian in Melbourne

Melbourne

Poetry

In January 1893 John Shaw Neilson won the junior prize for a poem at the Australian Natives Association's competition, in the same year that his father won the senior prize with a better poem. In 1895 he went with his father to Sea Lake

Sea Lake, Victoria

Sea Lake is a town in the Mallee district of north-west Victoria, Australia and is situated on the southern shores of Lake Tyrrell. The town is located on the Calder Highway, north-west of Melbourne, and west of Swan Hill. Sea Lake is in the heart of Australia's "wheat belt", and is the main...

, and about a year later had some verses accepted by The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...

in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. But his health broke down and he did little writing for about four years.

He was contributing to the Bulletin between 1901 and 1906, and about 1908 some of his verses, mostly of a light or popular kind, were accepted by Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer and Queensland state politician.-Early life:...

for the Clarion. From about 1906 Neilson's sight began to fail, for the rest of his life he was able to do little reading, and most of his work was dictated.

When the Bookfellow was revived in 1911 Neilson was a contributor, and Alfred George Stephens the editor, began collecting the best of his poems, intending to issue them in a volume under the title of Green Days and Cherries; Fred John's Annual for 1913 included Neilson as the author of this volume. It was, however, delayed; the war

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

delayed it further; and it was not issued until 1919, when the title Heart of Spring was adopted. It had a too laudatory preface by Stephens which stated that some of the work was "unsurpassed in the range of English lyrics". In spite of this it was well received, and in 1923, with the help of Mrs Louise Dyer

Louise Hanson Dyer

Louise Berta Mosson Hanson-Dyer was an Australian-born music publisher and patron of the arts.She was born Louise Berta Mosson Smith in Melbourne, the daughter of Louis Smith, a medical practitioner and parliamentarian...

, another volume, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, was published. This included nearly all the work in the first volume with some 20 additional lyrics.

About this time Neilson visited Melbourne and met many of the literary people of the period. Now in his 50s and not a robust man he was beginning to feel the strain of physical work.

"I don't mind some kinds of pick and shovel work," he said to Percival Serle

Percival Serle

Percival Serle was an Australian biographer and bibliographer.Serle was born in Victoria and for many years worked in a life assurance office before becoming chief clerk and accountant at the University of Melbourne...

, "but when I have to throw heavy stuff over my shoulder it gives me rather a wrench." He may have been referring to the time he spent in the Heyfield

Heyfield, Victoria

Heyfield is a town in Victoria, Australia, with a population of 2099. It is located east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington local government area. Located on the Thomson River, Heyfield is a gateway to the Victorian High Country.-History:...

area, where he wrote several poems and helped in the construction of the Lake Glenmaggie weir wall.

In 1925 and again in 1926, Alfred Stephens suggested in newspaper articles that more suitable employment should be found for him. The difficulty was that Neilson's poor eyesight unfitted him for most kinds of work. However, a movement began in Melbourne to help him and he was granted a small literary pension; and eventually in 1928 a position was found for him as an attendant in the office of the Victorian Country Roads Board. This office was in the Exhibition Gardens

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne

The Carlton Gardens is a World Heritage Site located on the northeastern edge of the Central Business District in the suburb of Carlton, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....

, Melbourne, and in these pleasant surroundings Neilson spent his days until near the end of his life.

A volume, New Poems, was published in 1927, and in 1934 his Collected Poems appeared. Four years later another small volume was published, Beauty Imposes. A number of John Shaw Neilson's poems were set to music by composers such as Margaret Sutherland

Margaret Sutherland

Margaret Sutherland was an Australian composer, probably the best-known female composer her country has produced....

and Alfred Hill

Alfred Hill

Alfred Francis Hill CMG OBE was an Australian/New Zealand composer, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Alfred Hill was born in Melbourne in 1869. His year of birth is shown in many sources as 1870, but this has now been disproven. He spent most of his early life in New Zealand...

Death

Neilson retired from the Country Roads Board early in 1941, and went to Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

to stay with friends. His literary pension was now increased to £2 a week. Soon after his return to Melbourne his health began to fail, and he died at a private hospital on 12 May 1942. He was buried in the Footscray

Footscray, Victoria

Footscray is a suburb 5 km west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maribyrnong. At the 2006 Census, Footscray had a population of 11,401....

Cemetery near Melbourne.

Personal life

John Shaw Neilson never married. He was a slender man of medium height with a face that suggested his kindliness, refinement and innate beauty of character. He was glad to have his work appreciated, but it never affected his simplicity and modesty. He was slow in developing, perhaps as Stephens said, he had to learn the words with which to express himself. There is little suggestion of an intellectual background to his work, but the range of his emotions is beautifully expressed with apparently unconscious artistry, in phrases that often have the touch of magic that marks the true poet.

Works

Old Granny Sullivan, (poems), Sydney, Bookfellow, 1915.

Heart of Spring, (poems), Sydney, Bookfellow, 1919.

Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney, Bookfellow, 1923.

New Poems, Sydney, Bookfellow, 1927.

Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, edited and with introduction by R. H. Croll, Melbourne, Lothian, 1934.

Beauty Imposes: Some Recent Verse, Angus and Robertson, 1938.

Unpublished Poems, edited by James Devaney
James Devaney
James Martin Devaney was an Australian poet, novelist, and journalist.-Biography:Born in Bendigo, Victoria, Devaney attended St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, entering the Marist Brothers juniorate in 1904. He took his vows in 1915...

, Angus and Robertson, 1947.

Shaw Neilson: poetry selections, selected and introduced by Judith Wright, Angus and Robertson, 1963.

The Poems of Shaw Neilson, edited and introduction by A. R. Chisholm, Angus and Robertson, 1965, revised edition, 1973.

Witnesses of Spring, edited by Judith Wright
Judith Wright
Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...

and Val Vallis, Angus and Robertson, 1970.

Selected Poems, edited by A. R. Chisholm, Angus and Robertson, 1976.

Green Days and Cherries: The Early Verse of Shaw Neilson, edited by Hugh Anderson and Leslie James Blake, Red Rooster Press, 1981.

Some Poems of John Shaw Neilson: Selected and With Wood-Engravings, Canberra, Brindabella Press, 1984.

John Shaw Neilson: Poetry, Autobiography, and Correspondence, edited by Cliff Hanna, University of Queensland Press, 1991.

Selected Poems, edited by Robert Gray
Robert Gray (poet)
Robert William Geoffrey Gray is an Australian poet, freelance writer, and critic.-Biography:Gray grew up in Coffs Harbour and was educated in a country town on the north coast of New South Wales. He trained there as a journalist, and since then has worked in Sydney as an editor, advertising...

, Angus and Robertson, 1991.

The Sun Is Up: Selected Poems, Loch Haven Books, 1991.

Biographies

Shaw Neilson 1944, by James Devaney
Shaw Neilson 1968, by H.J. Oliver
John Shaw Neilson 1972, by Hugh Anderson and L.J. Blake
The Autobiography of John Shaw Neilson 1978
Poet of the Colours 1988, by John H. Phillips
The Folly of Spring 1990, by Cliff Hanna
John Shaw Neilson: Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence 1991, edited by Cliff Hanna
John Shaw Neilson: A Life in Letters 2001, Helen Hewson

External links

at Sydney University

Hugh Anderson, 'Neilson, John Shaw (1872 - 1942)', Australian Dictionary of Biography
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....

, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 673–674.
Poemhunter.com - John Shaw Neilson contains a number of his poems.
Australian Authors - John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942) by Perry Middlemiss also contains links to a number of poems.

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