'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?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
131

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCC AADDCC AADDEE EEFFGG HHBBAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 952
Words 169
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

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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