Keeping so thin

Component identifier:

Item 63

Content Summary:

Nine letters (20pp) written at dictation between October 1938 and January 1939. The poem is introduced: "...I feel ashamed worrying you about these things. I am enclosing Keeping So Thin. I have in mind some of the rather poor country where I was raised". Then after a long description of the background to the poem: "I have not done much rhyming for about two years now, and I don't feel very confident - I would like to have your opinion". Both men worked hard to perfect the poem, Devaney making many suggestions, Neilson wrote: "I think that you are right in the main about the alterations. I sometimes had this experience with A.G.S. He often, very truthfully, pointed out that my alterations were not very happy".

With these is an early version of the poem; this together with some typescripts by Devaney with annotations and emendations, indicate the extent of the revision before the poem appeared in print. It did appear in the Melbourne Herald, where it was described as "a vivid picture of the drought country", which of course it is not. Neilson was most annoyed.

Names:

John Shaw Neilson

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