The Gentle Water Bird Explained
"The Gentle Water Bird" (1926) is a poem by Australian poet John Shaw Neilson.[1]
It was originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 April 1926,[2] as by "Shaw Neilson", and was subsequently reprinted in the author's single-author collections and a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
The poem details how the poet sees God in his study of a crane landing on water.
Critical reception
In his biography of Shaw Neilson for The Advocate Bernard O'Brien wrote: "His family was Scottish and Presbyterian, and his mother had a touch of melancholy which made his early religious training very severe. As a boy he was not allowed even to go out walking on Sunday. But an interesting poem, "The Gentle Water Bird," tells how he arrived at a truer idea of religion and of God. Watching the cranes in the reeds, it suddenly struck him that the God Who created these lovely creatures, and provided them with such a peaceful, contented existence, must Himself be attractive,loving and kind. The poem salutes the bird as a messenger from heaven, and his whole life was nourished by that conviction."[3]
Publication history
After the poem's initial publication in The Sydney Morning Herald it was reprinted as follows:
- New Poems by John Shaw Neilson, Bookfellow (1927)[4]
- Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson by John Shaw Neilson, Lothian (1934)[5]
- Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse edited by John Barnes and Brian MacFarlane, Heinemann (1984)[6]
- Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry edited by Les Murray, Collins Dove (1986)[7]
- John Shaw Neilson : Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence edited by Cliff Hanna, UQP (1991)[8]
- Hell and After : Four Early English-Language Poets of Australia edited by Les Murray, Carcanet (2005)[9]
- Collected Verse of John Shaw Neilson edited by Margaret Roberts, UWA Publishing (2012)[10]
See also
Notes and References
- Web site: Austlit — "The Gentle Water Bird" by John Shaw Neilson . Austlit. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: "The Gentle Water Bird" . The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 1926, p11. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: "Shaw Neilson, the Robert Burns of Australia by Bernard O'Brien" . The Advocate, 11 April 1945, p9. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: New Poems by John Shaw Neilson. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson by John Shaw Neilson. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse (Heinemann) . National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry edited by Les Murray. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: John Shaw Neilson : Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence edited by Cliff Hanna . National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: Hell and After : Four Early English-Language Poets of Australia edited by Les Murray. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
- Web site: Collected Verse of John Shaw Neilson edited by Margaret Roberts. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2024.
