A Fair Exchange

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



Would you be much impressed, my dear,
Now you've adopted shorts,
If males like me came dressed, my dear,
In skirts, to divers sports?
With gussets, flares and pleats and things
Like that, we'd give our fancy wings
To grace the links and courts.

You should not worry very much,
Since male attire you choose,
If, with a chic Parisian touch
And taste in cut and hues,
We garbed ourselves, from neck to knees,
In crepe de chine or 'summer breeze'
Of pretty pinks and blues.

Would frills and flounces seem absurd
Upon the manly form?
I don't see why, upon my word,
Such gads, should raise a storm
Of ridicule.  And, if they do,
Scorn coming from one garbed like you
Is really rather warm.

Think the position out, my dear,
And be consistent, please.
And, while you dash about, my dear,
In pants shorn to the knees,
You're drawing from the normal male
The same loud laugh with which you'd hail
A man in fripperies.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 04, 2023

52 sec read
94

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCCB DEDEFFE GHGHIIH AFAFJJB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 888
Words 169
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7

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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