Shaw Neilson

John Shaw Neilson (22 February 1872 – 12 May 1942) was an Australian poet.

For most of his life, Neilson was 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 its beauty.

Early life Neilson was born on 22 February 1872, in Penola, South Australia.

Later life and 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.

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

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1970, the Fellowship of Australian Writers has presented an annual award, the FAW John Shaw Neilson Poetry Award, for unpublished poems of at least 14 lines.

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

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.

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 Unpublished Poems, edited by James Devaney, Angus and Robertson, 1947.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 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, 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

Selected list of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collected in "Heart of Spring!" 1909 The Register, 20 February 1909, Heart of Spring, Bookfellow, 1919, p. 1 "Love's Coming" 1911 The Daily Herald, 13 May 1911, Heart of Spring, Bookfellow, 1919, p. 40 "Song Be Delicate" 1913 The Bookfellow, 15 November 1913 Heart of Spring, Bookfellow, 1919, p. 3 "The Break of Day" 1918 The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch Heart of Spring, Bookfellow, 1919, p. 29 "The Orange Tree" 1921 The Bookfellow, 15 February 1921 Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson editedby R. H. Croll, Lothian, 1934, pp. 100-101 "The Gentle Water Bird" 1926 The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 1926 New Poems, Bookfellow, 1927, pp. 34-35 "Beauty Imposes" 1938 Beauty Imposes : Some Recent Verse, Angus and Robertson, 1938, p. 34 "The Crane is My Neighbour" 1938 Beauty Imposes : Some Recent Verse, Angus and Robertson, 1938, pp. 14-15 "The Poor Can Feed the Birds" 1938 Beauty Imposes : Some Recent Verse, Angus and Robertson, 1938, pp. 28-29

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

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