The Heart of the Dove

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



Say, Bo, this little Yewropean war
It grieves our gloryus nation to the core
The vurry core of its great, strang, red heart,
We're tur-ble sore:
That's what.
We got
A reel sawft heart.    

Naw, son! we air not takin' any part.
We figgered that ahl out, right from the start.
The great american nation stan's aside:
She keeps apart
An' jaws,
Becaws
We gat our pride.

But don't yew figger ahn no fancy paly
With Uncle Sam; he's ready for th efray.
An' wance that 'Murkan eagle's screech is heard
Watch out!  An', say,
Geewhiz!
He is
Some bird!

He is some eagle, yew kin take my word.
If wance that great, fierce heart of his was sturred
Aw, shucks! that little Yewropean stunt
Would look ab-surd!
If he
Cast free
You'd see some hunt!

When wance that Bird o' Freedom hit the front
Why, Gee! them dinky ings would have to shunt!
Old Yewrope would be right clean off the map!
I put it blunt:
That lot
Would not
Put up a scrap.

Wance we cut loose - Aw, Hully Gee! the gap
In Yewrope's rank 'ud make tyhem howl for pap.
We'd wipe the airth out of the Kasmic Plan
An' on the map
This ball
They'd call
Amur-i-can.

The true Amur'kan, sir, he is a man
Who'd lick this un-i-verse, wance he began;
Say, it's a cinch; becaws we hold the dough
If we should plan
To crunch
The bunch,
None could say so.

Them Kings and Kaisers all would have to go.
He'd do 'em up right praper!  Get me, Bo?
He'd eat hull crate-loads of their wan-harse ships!
He'd smash the show,
He'd swat
The lot
Wance come to grips!

Aw, shucks!  This great, strang nation, sir, it whips
Creation!  Wance the word has pas'd our lips
We'd just reach out, an' take the hull darn world!
We'd get the ships
 An' men:
 An' then
Things would get whirled!

Yep!  Wance that starry banner was unfurled
We'd roast the Kaiser till his whiskers curled!
Say, do you get me?  Wance we j'ined the fray
The hull darn world
Would scoot,
Per boot,
Out of our way.

Wance we were roused - what matter, anyway?
We air nat takin' war in ours to-day
Naw, Bo; we got no quar'l, we play the part
Of pained dismay,
To show,
You know,
Our great, sawft, strang, red heart.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:07 min read
110

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABAXCB BBDBEED FAGHEXG GBIBJJI IIKICCK KKLKFFL LLMLNNM MMOMCCO OOPOQQP PPHPRRH HHBHMMB
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 2,031
Words 403
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7

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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