Analysis of If It's Modern It's Right



By the Mediterranean shore,
In the days of the cohorts and legions,
When oodles of rain used to pour
O'er the old agricultural regions,
When a deluge came thundering down -
  Tho' the vineyards of Rome did not need it -
Men cocked a shrewd eye
At the lowering sky
And agreed that the gods had decreed it.
And they said to themselves: 'There is not the least doubt
That's Jupiter Pluvius pouring it out.'

But the restless old world forged ahead,
And men waxed in wisdom and reason;
An in bluff, Merrie England, 'tis said,
When a deluge came down out of season,
And rotted their 'turmuts,' their 'spuds',
Mangelwursts and similar riches,
The wise of the land
Saw black magic at hand,
So they sizzled a couple of witches.
And they said to themselves, 'There be not the least doubt,
They hags can cast spells for a deluge or drought.'

But progress moved onward, and soon
Men derided the cult of witch-burning;
And, in times of great floods, 'twas the moon
Caused it all, said the men of deep learning.
And they proved, since she governs the tides,
She must govern all water and weather.
So men turned to this new view,
Since 'twas novel and new,
And they scrapped old beliefs altogether,
For they said to themselves, 'There is not the least doubt,
Lest the moon's on her back she must spill water out.'

But we moderns, of course, high of brow,
Are amused by these crude superstitions.
We are guided by scientist now
Astronomers, mathematicians.
'Tis sunspots, as now we know well,
Cause phenomenal floods and such troubles;
But there isn't much harm;
So still your alarm,
For it's only old Sol blowing bubbles.
But I say to myself, 'Can there be any doubt
That a brief hundred years sees this theory out?'


Scheme ABABXCDDCEE FGFGXHIIHEE JKJKXLMMLEE NBNBXOPPOEE
Poetic Form
Metre 10001001 0011010010 11011111 1001010010 101011001 1010111111 11011 101001 0011011011 011101111011 110011011 101011101 011010010 101101011 1010111110 0101111 1010010 01101 111011 1110010110 011101111011 11111101011 1111001 1010011110 001111101 1111011110 011111001 1110110010 1111111 111001 011101010 111101111011 101101111101 111011111 101111010 111011001 01000010 1111111 1010010110 111011 11101 1110111010 11111111101 10110111101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,667
Words 314
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 11, 11, 11, 11
Lines Amount 44
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 330
Words per stanza (avg) 77
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:34 min 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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