A Duty Done - 1935

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



The swallows are back, and I'm tuning my lyre,
For today 'tis my duty to sing
A melodious lay that is graciously gay
To welcome - officially - spring
Ting-a-ling
So let's have a song with a swing.
 Bing!
High cockalorum and fal-de-rah, whack!
Young Spring's in the offing!  The swallows are back!

To put sense in the song matters little so long
As the lift and the lilt of it ring.
And a mention be made of the wattle-hung glade
 Where the blithering birds are a-wing
Ting-a-ling
 And the clamorous honey-bees cling.
Z-z-z-ing!
Tho' I'm scarce in the humor, alas and alack!
Ho, merry-down-derry!  The swallows are back!

So - officially - Hi!  Oh, salubrious sky!
What a dear and delectable thing
To behold such a blue as old Arcady knew
When - er - Strephan or someone was king
Ting-a-ling
And life held nor arrow nor sling.
 Ping!
Ah, the fervor is forced; but I mustn't get slack,
Tho' the rhymes may run low, for the swallows are back!

But - privily - oh, my vitality's low,
And a sneer at the season I fling
For I gasp and I wheeze in the weary unease
Of the plagues that the pollen days bring
Ting-a-ling
I'm insipid as second-hand string.
 Ring.
Ah, ring down the curtain!  I've gone to the pack!
But, a last word in closing: the swallows are back.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
53

Quick analysis:

Scheme xaxaAaabb xaxaAaaab xaxaAaabb xaxaAaabb
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,236
Words 234
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 9, 9

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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