The Drama

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



Ah, well, the thing that lived lives on,
And who are we to say it nay?
When Vandal and when Goth had gone,
Long, long beyond great Caesar's day,
The Arts that sought for heights sublime,
Still scaled Olympus, scorning time.

And we who tread this little earth,
Seeking for profit or for fame,
And count one life's poor efforts worth
The meed of all the world's acclaim -
How do we count?  What do we bring
To earth's great final reckoning?

Oh, are we not as little boys
Striving to conquer sea and air,
Playing a while with futile toys
To fight the bogey of despair?
While, in the end, invention's lure
Finds us relief - but never cure.

Invention?  Men may, late or soon,
Thro' high ambition's urge, aspire,
And, so aspiring, win the boon
Of great and ultimate desire.
But art?  Or talkies?  Nothing loth,
I'm game to own there's room for both.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
27

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXABB CDCDEE FGFGHH IXIXXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 828
Words 158
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

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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