The Green Singer

John Shaw Neilson 1872 (Penola, South Australia) – 1942 (Melbourne, Victoria)



ALL singers have shadows   
 That follow like fears,   
But I know a singer   
 Who never saw tears;   
A gay love—a green love—           
 Delightsome—divine:   
The Spring is that singer—   
 An old love of mine!   
  
All players have shadows,   
 And into the play           
Old sorrows will saunter—   
 Old sorrows will stay.   
But here is a player   
 Whose speech is divine:   
The Spring is that player—           
 An old love of mine!   
  
All singers grow heavy:   
 Their hours as they run   
Bite up all the blossoms,   
 Suck up all the sun;           
But I know a singer   
 Delightsome—divine:   
The gay love—the green love—   
 An old love of mine!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
42

Quick analysis:

Scheme axBxcDbD aebebdbD xfxfBDcD
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 673
Words 105
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

John Shaw Neilson

John Shaw Neilson was an Australian poet. Slightly built, for most of his life he worked as a labourer, fruit-picking, clearing scrub, navvying and working in quarries, and, after 1928, working as a messenger with the Country Roads Board in Melbourne. he died when he was 70 years old. more…

All John Shaw Neilson poems | John Shaw Neilson Books

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