Analysis of A Fair Risk

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)



Rashly I shot an arrow in the air,
And, as my shaft into the zenith sped,
I knew 'twas bound to fall some time, somewhere;
And wondered if 'twould dropp upon some head.

A certain friend of mine who loitered near
Remarked, 'Don't let the thing distress you, please.
'Twill hit a politician, never fear.'
 And so, my tortured conscience was at ease.

Now, when I read of Party Government,
Its wrangles, lies, and methods most unfair,
I calmly step outside my tenement
And shoot another arrow in the air.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EAEA
Poetic Form Pantoum 
Quatrain 
Metre 111110001 0111010101 111111111 0101110111 010111111 0111010111 110010101 0111010111 1111110100 1101010101 1101111100 0101010001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 499
Words 93
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 128
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
115

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", published in the early 20th century. Though Dennis's work is less well known today, his 1915 publication of The Sentimental Bloke sold 65,000 copies in its first year, and by 1917 he was the most prosperous poet in Australian history. Together with Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, both of whom he had collaborated with, he is often considered among Australia's three most famous poets. While attributed to Lawson by 1911, Dennis later claimed he himself was the 'laureate of the larrikin'. When he died at the age of 61, the Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons suggested he was destined to be remembered as the 'Australian Robert Burns'. more…

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