Our Cow

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



Down by the slipralls stands our cow
  Chewing, chewing, chewing,
She does not care what folks out there
  In the great, big world are doing.
She sees the small cloud-shadows pass
  And green grass shining under.
If she does think, what does she think
  About it all, I wonder?

She sees the swallows skimming by
  Above the sweet young clover,
The light reeds swaying in the wind
  And tall trees bending over.
Far down the track she hears the crack
  of bullock-whips, and raving
Of angry men where, in the sun,
  Her fellow-beasts are slaving.

Girls, we are told, can scratch and scold,
  And boys will fight and wrangle,
And big, grown men, just now and then,
  Fret o'er some fingle-fangle,
Vexing the earth with grief or mirth,
  Longing, rejoicing, rueing -
But by the slipralls stands our cow,
  Chewing.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

42 sec read
51

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXBXCXC XCXCXBXA XDXDXAAB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 796
Words 142
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 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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