The Fowl

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



A noble lesson this should teach,
Dear children unto you.
If other people's goods you reach,
Of rectitude 'twill be a breach,
Or parsons will your virtues preach,
According to the point of view,
Or to the kind of folks you 'do'.

You steal a chicken off a fence
  With wrath the pious shake,
Although you say with eloquence
The owner used it ill, and hence
You kindly sought to recompense
The bird for troubles past, and make
It happier, for Heaven's sake.

But if you are a statesman grand,
And ships and armies raise,
To steel some feeble niggers' land,
To make its folks a Christian band,
To take their moral weal in hand
The Empire echoes with your praise,
And churches bless you all your days.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
114

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAAABB CDXCCDD EFEEEFF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 685
Words 130
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 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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