Laissez-Faire



We'd harbored them on hovels, and in dens,
Altho' in price they counted less than cattle,
Had they not still the right, that ws all men's,
To strive and in a place in life's stern battle?
Had they not still the gift of God's free air,
His glorious sun, and every freeman's birthright
To fight the snarling pack and snatch a share?
Why should the task be ours to set the earth right?

Man may not win (we'd said) to earthly ease
Saving thro' strength, or birth, or lucky gamble.
Why, then, a truce to sentimental pleas;
Let us continue with the merry scramble
In which the valiant strong, to gain high place
Pulls down and climbs upon some weaker rival.
'Tis Nature's law.  And thus a stalwart race
Is e'er upheld by glorious survival.

Upon the olden road to Jericho
We watched, not one, but myriads fall and sicken.
We grieved; but saw no duty to stoop low.
Were we accountable for all Earth's stricken?
Shrewdly we passed by on the other side,
Planning such schemes as trouble a man's mind most.
'Not ours to alter Nature's law,' we cried.
'Each for himself, and devil take the hindmost.'

And so the devil took them - not for death;
But to live on where want and squalor cherish
Undreamed-of evils, whose miasmal breath
So taints the air that all the race may perish.
Is it too late to stay the avenging hand?
Too late to hold at bay this savage Reaper
Men have invoked?  Till all shall understand
And cry at last, 'I am my brother's keeper!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 18, 2023

1:24 min read
45

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD EBEBFBFB GHGHIXID JKJKLMLM
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,419
Words 272
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8

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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