Shaw Neilson

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John Shaw Neilson
Victoria, Australia
OccupationPoet
NationalityAustralian
Period1896–1938
GenreLyric poetry
Notable worksThe Orange Tree

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.

John Neilson senior was brought to 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 and rabbits 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. In 1938 a small collection of his poems, The Men of the Fifties, was published by the Hawthorn Press at 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

The Australasian
in 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. In 1895 he went with his father to

Sea Lake, and about a year later had some verses accepted by The Bulletin in Sydney
. 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 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

Mrs Louise Dyer
, 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

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 directly opposite the

Exhibition Gardens
, 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 Neilson's poems were set to music by composers such as

Australian Broadcasting Commission, and published by Currency Press, Sydney, in 1987.[2]
In 2012 an updated and expanded compilation of Neilson's Collected Poems, edited by Margaret Roberts, was published by University of Western Australia Press.

Death

Neilson retired from the Country Roads Board early in 1941, and went to Queensland 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 of heart disease at a private hospital on 12 May 1942. He was buried in the Footscray Cemetery near Melbourne.[3]

Legacy

In 1946 a bronze sculpture of the poet was commissioned for the opening of the Footscray Children's Library in Buckley Street. The sculpture, by Wallace Anderson, is still on display at the Footscray Library in Paisley Street. The Maribyrnong Library Service, who now run the Footscray Library, holds an archive, the John Shaw Neilson Collection. There is also a local John Shaw Neilson Society.[4]

In 1964 the Nhill and District Historical Society erected a monument to Neilson.[5] In 1972 the cottage birthplace of Neilson was relocated from Penola to a park in Nhill, as the John Shaw Neilson National Memorial Cottage.[6]

Since 1970 the Fellowship of Australian Writers has presented an annual award, the FAW John Shaw Neilson Poetry Award, for unpublished poems of at least 14 lines.[7]

Since 2005 the Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival have hosted the John Shaw Neilson Art Prize, for visual works inspired by the poet.[8]

Despite Melbourne's strong literary tradition, there are no Melbourne suburbs named after writers. There was a campaign in 2009 to name a new suburb after Neilson.[9]

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
    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
    Angus and Robertson
    , 1965, revised edition, 1973.
  • Witnesses of Spring, edited by
    Angus and Robertson
    , 1970.
  • Selected Poems, edited by
    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
    Angus and Robertson
    , 1991.
  • The Sun Is Up: Selected Poems, Loch Haven Books, 1991.
  • Collected Verse of John Shaw Neilson, edited by Margaret Roberts, University of Western Australia Publishing, 2012.
  • Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, edited by Robert Dixon, Sydney University Press, 2013

Individual poems

  • "
    The Crane is My Neighbour
    " (1938)

Biographies

  • John Shaw Neilson: a memorial, J. Roy Stevens, Bread and Cheese Club, 1942
  • Shaw Neilson, James Devaney, Angus and Robertson, 1944
  • Shaw Neilson, H.J. Oliver, Oxford University Press, 1968
  • John Shaw Neilson, Hugh Anderson and L.J. Blake, Rigby, 1972
  • Neilson, John Shaw (1978). The Autobiography of John Shaw Neilson, introduction by Nancy Keesing (PDF).
    ISBN 0-642-99116-2
    .
  • The Pathfinder, Darryl Emmerson, Currency Press, 1987
  • Poet of the Colours: The Life of John Shaw Neilson, John H. Phillips, Allen and Unwin, 1988
  • The Folly of Spring: A Study of John Shaw Neilson's Poetry, Cliff Hanna, University of Queensland Press, 1990
  • John Shaw Neilson: Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence, edited by Cliff Hanna, University of Queensland Press, 1991
  • Jock: A Life Story of John Shaw Neilson, Cliff Hanna, University of Queensland Press, 1999
  • John Shaw Neilson: A Life in Letters, Helen Hewson, Melbourne University Press, 2001

References

  1. ^ "Dictionary of Australian Biography N-O". gutenberg.net.au. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. ^ "The Pathfinder - the Pathfinder - Darryl Emmerson".
  3. ^ "John Shaw Neilson (1872–1942)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  4. ^ "John Shaw Neilson Collection - Maribyrnong City Council". Archived from the original on 18 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Australian Literary Monuments #28 - John Shaw Neilson - Matilda".
  6. ^ "John Shaw Neilson | Monument Australia".
  7. ISBN 978-0-89879-746-6
    .
  8. ^ "John Shaw Neilson Acquisitive Art Prize | Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival | Penola | Coonawarra |South Australia | Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival is an annual weekend held in May. It celebrates art, music, food and wine". Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  9. ^ Jason Steger, "A poetic turn of place", The Age, 25 April 2009; Retrieved 5 April 2013

External links

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Shaw Neilson
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