Analysis of Upon the Road to Rockabout

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



Upon the road to Rockabout
I came upon some sheep -
A large and woolly flock about
As wide as it was deep.

I was about to turn about
To ask the man to tell
Some things I wished to learn about
Both sheep and wool as well,

When I beheld a rouseabout
Who lay upon his back
Beside a little house about
A furlong from the track.

I had a lot to talk about,
And said to him "Good day."
But he got up to walk about,
And so I went away -


Scheme ABAB ACAC ADAD AAAX
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 010111 110111 01010101 111111 11011101 110111 11111101 110111 11101 110111 01010101 01101 11011101 011111 11111101 011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 421
Words 97
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 81
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

28 sec read
36

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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    What is the term for the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.
    A Line break
    B Dithyramb
    C Enjambment
    D A turn