A Few Lines to Beauty



Girls!
You with the bobbed hair or Mary Pickford curls,
Likewise you others
  Who still adopt the hair-dressing style,
  That makes the moderns smile.
But was undoubtedly the dearest attribute of your mothers.
And, by the by,
You with the glad-eye -
We've seen you in the street
Looking particularly sweet.
And we ask you
Do you think that those girls in the city that is reputed to possess a harbor
  can overtask you?
In the matter of looking nice -
We do not seek to give advice;
And, frankly, we don't know.
We have seen both types and so,
Being diplomatic,
We refrain from expressing an opinion that is too emphatic.
We'll leave it to the vote,
Yet hasten to remark that we simply dote
Upon the maiden who
Is just like you,
Fair reader!
We seek not to assume the office or prerogative of a special pleader.
And we own that this question of State Rights
Gives us uneasy dreams o' nights.
Take no notice of those churls
Who tell you that the Sydney girls
Can put it all over you in regard to female beauty.
My dears, you have a duty
At any rate,
Toward your State.
Go in
And Win!
Among you are undoubtedly quite a number of perfect peaches
And the sirens of the Sydney beaches
May yet be proved to be not exactly the pick of the basket.
Girls!
With or without curls,
The honor of your State and the noble men therein ask it.
Here I conclude.
And I trust that these few well-chosen remarks have not been in bad taste or
  over-rude.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 05, 2023

1:22 min read
150

Quick analysis:

Scheme AabccbddeefgfhhiijjkkffggllaammnnooppqAarsts
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,402
Words 272
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 44

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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