Analysis of The Incorrigible



The bad boy of Europe,
He stands in dire disgrace,
Crying too loud his innocence
While guilt grins from his face.
The gangster and the racketeer
Earth's honest folk disown,
And the bad boy of Europe
He walks his way alone.

In cynical dishonour
The world is not yet lost,
As the dull boy of Europe
Discovers to his cost.
Something is let to decency,
And something of fair play,
As the shameless boy of Europe
Learns, to his vague dismay.

Tho' nations yet be governed
By chiefs too worldly-wise,
There runs an unclean pathway
From which men turn their eyes.
Defined by laws unwritten,
There yet remains The Code;
But the bad boy of Europe
Treads the forbidden road.

Never, 'mid Christian nations,
Shall might be counted right;
And murder stays foul murder
Ever in just men's sight.
The wide world shall disown them
Who own that guilt-stained crew
Whose acts belie their mouthings;
Whose mouthings ring untrue.


Scheme ABXBCDAD CXAXXEAE XFEFXGAG XHXHXIBI
Poetic Form
Metre 011110 110101 10111100 111111 0100001 110101 0011110 111101 01001 011111 1011110 010111 10111100 010111 10101110 111101 1101110 111101 111011 111111 0111010 110101 1011110 101001 1011010 111101 0101110 100111 0111011 111111 110111 11101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 884
Words 161
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 180
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
80

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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