Analysis of A Fair Spin

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



Righto!
I'll give the game a go.
They say I should be circumspect; but I don't care a hang.
I'll bang
The cows in slang . .
'Ere!  Wot's the game?
Don't this Australia want a decent name
For treatin' other blokes all on the square?
I wouldn't dare
To sell crook rabbits down in Spadger's land;
Fer, if the ole tarts down there should complain
Jist once, why, all me custom
Would go right up the pole.
Upon me soul!
Yeh see, I trust 'em
An' they trust me.
Because they say, 'This rabbito, why 'e
Gives us a dinkum spin.
'E wouldn't take us in.'
Now, ain't that nice?
I don't like givin' statesmen my advice,
But - well, I'm just an ord'nary sorter bloke,
Still, I think it is getting past a joke
When coves that earns reel decent livli'oods
Rings in crook goods
Jist 'cos it pays.
Aw, spare me days!
I got some sense of wot the 'eads calls pride,
An', for to do a snide,
Crook deal like that
I'd
Sooner eat me 'at.
Fair dinkum: when I sum the 'ole thing up.
But still, I sometimes think
That us blokes - toilin' for a bit of dough -
Gives the straight game a go
Better than all the 'eads who play a game
Wot gives Australia a rotten name.
Blimey!  I sooner be -
(Now, let me see
Wot's this that Wordsworth says?)
Why, spare me days!
'I'd sooner be'
(Yes, me!)
'A pagan, suckled in some creed outworn,'
Than some smug Christain 'oo puts up to scorn
Australia's name.
Aw, strike!  We play the game:
Us rabbitos.  An' - on the square -
Even if I 'ad 'eaps of gilt to spare,
Like some of these
Exporters that I knows,
I wouldn't go
And play the game so low.
I'd not send one crook rabbit overseas,
No, not to please
A flamin' King;
It ain't the thing.
Desertin' Aussie is a dirty trick.


Scheme AABBBCCDDEFGHHIJJKKLLMMLNOOPPQPQRSAACCJJTOJJFUCCDDVWAAVVXXY
Poetic Form
Metre 10 110101 1111110111101 11 0101 1101 1101010101 111011101 1101 111101011 1101111101 1111110 111101 0111 11111 1111 01111111 11011 110110 1111 111110101 11111110101 1111110101 11111101 1011 1111 1111 1111110111 111101 1111 1 10111 111110111 111011 111110111 101101 1011011101 110100101 11101 1111 111101 1111 1101 11 01010111 111111111 0101 111101 111101 1011111111 1111 010111 1101 010111 1111110101 1111 011 1101 11010101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,631
Words 335
Sentences 30
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 59
Lines Amount 59
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,231
Words per stanza (avg) 335
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:46 min read
106

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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