John Shaw Neilson received only a basic education, yet became one of Australia's best poets. He was born at Penola, South Australia on 22 February 1872. Raised by a family of poor labourers, Neilson worked as a farm hand.

John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942) is Australia's great lyric poet. A new introduction by Dr Helen Hewson explores some of the influences which have shaped Neilson's poetry.

Neilson (1872-1942) was the son of a small settler and contract labourer in Western Victoria, and led the same kind of life as his father, helping his family work a number of disastrous selections and adding to their income by seasonal jobs at fencing, fruit picking, quarrying and woodcutting. His mother and two of his sisters died young, and he and his brothers suffered from chronic ailments attributable to poor diet and constant anxiety.

John Shaw Neilson (1872-1942) is Australia's great lyric poet and Collected Poems (1934), dedicated to Louise Dyer, bears his imprimatur. Encouraged by his editor, Robert Croll, Neilson was totally involved in its publication and promotion, selecting the poems, rewriting lines, adding new stanzas and restoring A.G. Stephen's earlier changes. Photographic sittings and book signings followed as well as favourable reviews. Neilson modestly attended readings in his honour at the Bookshop of Margareta Webber and enjoyed the concert broadcasts of Margaret Sutherland's compositions which included 'The Orange Tree'. After reading the Collected Poems she wrote to Neilson: "I have set your voice to music."A new introduction by Dr Helen Hewson, an Honorary Associate in the School of Letters, Art and Media at the University of Sydney, explores some of the influences which have shaped Neilson's poetry - his Celtic background, religious upbringing, reading and writing and love of art and music.

Australia's evocative Mallee region is rich with histories, impressions and geographical complexities. It Is also a microcosm of a world in turmoil.

An invaluable resource for staff and students in literary studies and Australian studies, this volume is the first major critical survey on Australian poetry. It investigates poetry's central role in engaging with issues of colonialism, nationalism, war and crisis, diaspora, gender and sexuality, and the environment. Individual chapters examine Aboriginal writing and the archive, poetry and activism, print culture, and practices of internationally renowned poets such as Lionel Fogarty, Gwen Harwood, John Kinsella, Les Murray, and Judith Wright. The Companion considers Australian leadership in the diversification of poetry in terms of performance, the verse novel, and digital poetries. It also considers Antipodean engagements with Romanticism and Modernism.