Analysis of The Ant Explorer

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



Once a little sugar ant made up his mind to roam-
To fare away far away, far away from home.
He had eaten all his breakfast, and he had his ma's consent
To see what he should chance to see and here's the way he went
Up and down a fern frond, round and round a stone,
Down a gloomy gully where he loathed to be alone,
Up a mighty mountain range, seven inches high,
Through the fearful forest grass that nearly hid the sky,
Out along a bracken bridge, bending in the moss,
Till he reached a dreadful desert that was feet and feet across.
'Twas a dry, deserted desert, and a trackless land to tread,
He wished that he was home again and tucked-up tight in bed.
His little legs were wobbly, his strength was nearly spent,
And so he turned around again and here's the way he went-
Back away from desert lands feet and feet across,
Back along the bracken bridge bending in the moss,
Through the fearful forest grass shutting out the sky,
Up a mighty mountain range seven inches high,
Down a gloomy gully, where he loathed to be alone,
Up and down a fern frond and round and round a stone.
A dreary ant, a weary ant, resolved no more to roam,
He staggered up the garden path and popped back home.


Scheme aabbcCDdeeffbbeedDCcaa
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101111111 110110110111 111011100111101 11111111010111 10101110101 1010101111101 101010110101 1010101110101 101010110001 111010101110101 10101010001111 11111101011101 11010100111101 01110101010111 101110110101 101010110001 101010110101 101010110101 1010101111101 101011010101 01010101011111 110101010111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,176
Words 231
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 22
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 42
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 925
Words per stanza (avg) 229
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

1:10 min read
199

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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