The Gentle Water Bird

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"The Gentle Water Bird"
by John Shaw Neilson
Written1926
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Publication date10 April 1926
Full text
Wikisource-logo.svg The Gentle Water Bird at Wikisource

"The Gentle Water Bird" (1926) is a poem by Australian poet John Shaw Neilson. [1]

Contents

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. [1]

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:

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Austlit — "The Gentle Water Bird" by John Shaw Neilson". Austlit. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  2. ↑ ""The Gentle Water Bird"". The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 April 1926, p11. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  3. ↑ ""Shaw Neilson, the Robert Burns of Australia by Bernard O'Brien"". The Advocate, 11 April 1945, p9. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  4. ↑ "New Poems by John Shaw Neilson". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  5. ↑ "Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson by John Shaw Neilson". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  6. ↑ "Cross-Country : A Book of Australian Verse (Heinemann)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  7. ↑ "Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  8. ↑ "John Shaw Neilson : Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence edited by Cliff Hanna". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  9. ↑ "Hell and After : Four Early English-Language Poets of Australia edited by Les Murray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "Collected Verse of John Shaw Neilson edited by Margaret Roberts". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
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