John Shaw Neilson was born at Penola, South Australia in 1872, the son of a farmer and contractor who removed to Victoria when Neilson was nine years of age. The boy had little schooling and early went to work in the hard way of the Bush. His poems were long meditated and slowly brought to utterance. His equipment was a few books well conned, and the strong blood and high heart of his Scottish ancestry. (From the Book's Preface)

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