• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Neilson [review of Heart of Spring (by John Shaw Neilson), 6 November 1919]

14 June 2022 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This review of Heart of Spring (by John Shaw Neilson) was published in The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 6 November 1919.]

Neilson

In Heart of Spring (The Bookfellow, Sydney) Shaw Neilson collects many of his scattered verses into a little book that is full of delicate charm. His is not the strong, clear note of a master singer; his themes are often of the slightest and his craftsmanship enables him to miss the commonplace by a very narrow margin; but the work will please the literary reader, while, by a certain gentle force which it possesses, it may reach many to whom much modern poetry is a thing strange and incomprehensible. Neilson shows a fine feeling for words and phrases; and though it can hardly be said that it is the inevitable music he gives us, there is quality and distinctive style in his verses. He has a keen sympathy, too, which makes him very lovable, even if he does not often get to the heart of things or touch the deeps within deeps.

Heart of Spring can go on its own merits as a valuable addition to the Australian library; but it is handicapped by the preface which “A.G.S.” contributes. To call Shaw Neilson “first of Australian poets” is to invite ridicule. It cannot be fairly said that he is even in the front rank; and to place his little book beside those of Henry Lawson, Roderic Quinn, Henry Kendall, G. J. Brennan, Zora Cross or Mary Gilmore — all of them Australians by birth — would be merely to make the new volume feel thin and uncomfortable. Still there is much in it to be thankful for. Here is “Pale Neighbor,” a poem which shows the author’s limitation as well as his strength:—

Over the road she lives not far,
My neighbor, pale and thin.
“Sweet is the world!” she cries. “How sweet
To keep on living in!”
Her heart it is a right red heart
That cannot stoop to pine;
Her hand-clasp is a happiness,
Her welcome is a wine.

Love, she will have it, is a lilt
From some lost comedy
Played long ago when the white stars
Lightened the greenery.

Ever she talks of earth and air
And sunlit junketing;
Gaily she says, “I know I shall
Be dancing in the Spring!”

Almost I fear her low, low voice
As one may fear the moon,
As one may fear too faint a sound
In an old uncanny tune.

Over the road ’twill not be long —
Clearly I see it all. …
Ere ever the red days come up
Or the pale grasses fall.

There will be black upon us, and
Within our eyes a dew:
We shall be walking neighborly
As neighbors — two and two.

Nobody can deny that there is skill there; and nobody could assert that the verse shows any remarkable insight or feeling. It is delicate and tender, but superficial. The dying girl does not interest the reader enough to make the suggestion of the last stanzas much more than the commonplace spoken every day about death. Not much more — but just in the mild qualification you get Shaw Neilson.

But “Pale Neighbor” is a good deal above this author’s average work, both in manner and in thought. The verses called “Little White Girl” give a fair idea of a good deal the book contains:—

Fears are mine for a face so pretty!
Violets perish, lilies are few:
There is an ache in my heart for you.
In all the tawdry, treacherous city
You are the one thing white and clean,
The only riches where all is mean,
Little white girl so pale and pretty!

Fears are mine for a face so pretty!
I have been lover of lips and chins,
And a listener to violins
Crying for love and calling for pity;
And it all comes back with your eyes and hair…
But the darkness threatens you everywhere,
Little white girl, so pale and pretty.

That might easily have been just album-verse — but it isn’t by a long, long way. And for another sample — one of the best things in the book:—

Speak not to me, old violin!
Mock not this heart of mine!
Thou mummy with the glistening skin
Speak not to me, old violin!
For the dead men have shadows thin,
And all their sobs are thine —
Speak not to me, old violin!
Mock not this heart of mine.

“Thou mummy with the glistening skin” is just about as poor as all the rest is fine.

Heart of Spring contains a great deal that must please and very little than can jar on the most sensitive soul. If Shaw Neilson were a very young man the promise would be remarkable.



Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 6 November 1919, The Red Page (column 2)

Editor’s notes:
Although this review gives some praise, as well as criticism, to Neilson’s work, it is overall a rather negative piece. It should be remembered that Heart of Spring was published by A. G. Stephens, who — as a literary critic and editor — had made himself some long-lasting enemies in the Australian literary world. Also, when Stephens left the The Bulletin (he used to be its literary editor), there was some bad blood between AGS and the proprietor. It is true that AGS calling John Shaw Neilson “first of Australian poets” seemed a bit over-the-top, and it would be fair to regard that description as over-blown praise or hyperbole (although, that is a matter of opinion); however, the ill-will of the reviewer can be seen, not only in his comments about Neilson, but in the reference to “the preface which “A.G.S.” contributes” — the use of quotation marks apparently implying that A.G.S. was some unknown person, when everyone in the Australian literary scene of that period was well aware of who A.G.S. was. It seems likely that the writer of this article nursed a grudge against A. G. Stephens; the review reads more like a bit of snarky writing (with an attempt to appear even-handed), rather than a professional piece of literary criticism. [It should be stressed that the foregoing is an opinion (albeit one based upon historical literary knowledge), rather than an established fact.]

A.G.S. = Alfred George Stephens (1865-1933), an Australian editor, publisher, author, literary critic, and poet
See: “A. G. Stephens”, The Institute of Australian Culture

ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)

thou = (archaic) you

Filed Under: articles Tagged With: 500x500, book review, John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942) (subject), publication The Bulletin (Sydney), SourceTrove, year1919

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The New to the Old [poem by Randolph Bedford, 3 January 1896]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Australian slang
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Ju on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • David Carroll on Queensland [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in