Analysis of 'Jack'

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



Since Stanley felt the icy blast
Jack leads the Opposition.
A mild, scholastic man to cast
For such a tough position.
Fit for some rude iconoclast
Or thick-skinned politician.

His academic mind e'er seeks
Direct appeals to reason;
He thinks a deal before he speaks,
And ever speaks in season.
Quibbling, to him, with folly reeks,
And sophistry is treason.

All sentiment he safely locks
Within; and jokes unnerve him;
No soap or any other box
As pedestal would serve him.
He'd analyse a paradox;
And jibes can never swerve him.

A poor equipment, this, you'd say,
To meet the hurly-burly.
Where votes are wheedled in a way
Both devious and curly.
We may grow up to Jack some day.
He's sound, but somewhat early.


Scheme ABABAB CBCBCB DEDEDE FGFGFG
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 110010 01010111 1101010 111110 111010 10101101 0101110 11010111 0101010 100111101 01110 11001101 0101011 11110101 1100111 11010 0111011 01010111 1101010 1111001 1100010 11111111 1111110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 694
Words 127
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 139
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
114

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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