Analysis of Lines Written in Hospital

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



Upon a snowy bed I lie,
Too placid to complain,
And watch the mad world rushing by
Beyond my window-pane,
The traffic threading in and out
And wonder what it's all about.

I watch the loaded tramcars stream
By dozens into town,
With men, each thinking of some scheme
To take his neighbour down;
Each woman wond'ring what she'll buy
At Frill and Fluffum's bye and bye.

Down in the street I hear the talk
Of people passing by,
They chatter, chatter as they walk
Of all thins 'neath the sky
Of trade, of sport, of foolish things
That lack of clear reflection brings.

Placid I said I was - but no;
For all this seems to me
This madly rushing to and fro
Just sheer futility.
And, as I choke with rising wrath,
The nurse says, 'Time to take your broth.'


Scheme ABABCC DEDEAA FAFAGG HIHIXX
Poetic Form
Metre 01010111 110101 01011101 011101 01010001 01011101 1101011 110011 11110111 11111 11011111 1101101 10011101 110101 11010111 111101 11111101 11110101 10111111 111111 11010101 110100 01111101 01111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 734
Words 145
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 144
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
111

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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