Personal Choice Volume 2 No.8

From The Orange Tree by John Shaw Neilson

The young girl stood beside me. I

Saw not what her young eyes could see:

A light, she said, not of the sky

Lives somewhere in the Orange Tree.

. . .

Listen! the young girl said. There calls

No voice, no music beats on me;

But it is almost sound: it falls

This evening on the Orange Tree.

. . .

Listen! the young girl said. For all

Your hapless talk you fail to see

There is a light, a step, a call,

This evening on the Orange Tree.

. . .

Silence! the young girl said. Oh why,

Why will you talk to weary me?

Plague me no longer now, for I

Am listening like the Orange Tree.

The Orange Tree is one of the most known poems of John Shaw Neilsen and perhaps one of his most important poems. The poem is characterized by its use of imagery, particularly of light and nature, to convey the sense of mystery and ambiguity. The Orange Tree itself becomes a symbol of the unknown and the ineffable, a realm of experience that can only be fully appreciated by those who retain their innocence and sense of wonder. Compared to Neilson's other works, this poem explores similar themes of childhood, innocence, and the spiritual, but it stands out for its concise and poignant expression. In the context of the time period, the poem reflects the growing sense of disillusionment and loss of innocence in the wake of World War I.

John Shaw Neilson (1872 – 1942) 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. Largely untrained and only basically educated, Neilson became known as one of Australia's finest lyric poets, who wrote a great deal about the natural world, and the beauty in it.