Analysis of 'Billy'

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



At the risk of seeming silly,
I would ask you,  'Where is Billy?'
Here's a crisis, here's a fight,
And he's missing.  Strike a light!
Blithering blazes!  Here's a mill -
Rough house stuff; and where's our Bill?

Where's the speech with phrases frilly,
Trouncing foemen willy nilly,
Waving arms, gesticulations,
Posturing and wild gyrations?
Briefly, where's the vaudeville
That, in olden days was Bill?

Where's the harsh voice, rising shrilly
To uphold the views of Billy?
Far too grave grow politics,
Lacking all his circus tricks.
Missing!  Missing!  And, alack!
Some folk say he won't come back.

Not so I.  I see him dreaming
In some chamber, planning, scheming,
Till, when we are on the verge
Of disaster, he'll emerge
With the only sane, safe plan,
For deliverance of man.

Then with one fine, regal, gesture,
He will don again the vesture
Of authority and right,
Crying, 'Come, I see the light!' . . . .
Gosh!  But wouldn't we look silly
If once more we followed Billy?


Scheme AABBCC AADDCC AADDEE EEFFGG HHBBAA
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Metre 10111010 11111110 1010101 0110101 110101 11101101 10111010 1011010 1011 10001010 101010 1010111 1011101 10101110 111110 1011101 101001 1111111 11111110 01101010 1111101 1010101 1010111 1010011 11111010 1110101 1010001 1011101 11101110 11111010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 952
Words 169
Sentences 23
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 147
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
131

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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