Analysis of Kemal - The Posh Pasha

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



We have heard of the mythical lands of the East
And of caliphs and sultans galore;
Of Haroun al Raschid, of Abdul the beast,
And dark deeds by the Bosphorous shore.
But the picture we knew fades completely from view,
When we glimpse modern wonders that are
In the wonderful land of the greatest of Turks
Of Mustapha Kemal Pasha.

With a wave of his hand he has altered his land
From a fabulous country and strange
To an organised State wide-awake, up to date;
And he's made them content with the change.
Bastinado and bow-strings, and bodies in bags,
And the flash of the sharp scimitar
Are but memories dim, since they learned pep and vim
From Mustapha Kemal Pasha.

No magician of old ever dared to unfold
Such a box of tricks and strange spells.
To the joy of the males he has banished the veils
From the faces of Bosphorous belles.
Now with lip-stick and shingle they joyfully mingle
With crowds in the modern bazaar,
Whilst straw-hatted young bloods, in swish tailor-made duds,
Swear by Mustapha Kemal Pasha.

Cross-legged on a couch, cross-grained with a grouch
Old die-hards smoke hookahs and glower,
As they sigh for the days of the fez and old ways
With harems and intrigues in flower;
But the light-hearted lads give the bird to their dads,
While they puff at a fag or cigar;
To have all their trust, as Mustapha must,
Must gladden Mustapha Pasha


Scheme ABABXCXD XEXEXBXD XFXFXCXD XGXGXCXD
Poetic Form
Metre 111101001101 01101001 111110101 0111011 101011101011 111101011 001001101011 110101 101111111011 101001001 1111101111 011110101 101101001 0011011 111001111101 110101 101011101101 10111011 101101111001 1010111 1111010110010 11001001 11111011011 1110101 11010111101 11111010 111101101011 11001010 101101101111 111101101 11111111 110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,331
Words 245
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 269
Words per stanza (avg) 61
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:13 min read
58

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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