The Old Gunn's Gully Line

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



The ole train puffs in once a day
On the ole Gunn's Gully line;
In a lazy, leisurely kind o' way
She comes in, wet or fine.
Nobody wants her, nobody needs her,
Nobody likes her, nobody heeds; her
Usefulness is done.
But, wet or fine, or sun or shine,
That ole train's got to run.

A man an' a dog, they loaf about
To watch the train come in;
An' a man an' a boy an' a bag get out
With Bowyang's ole cream-tin.
An' all men say wot all men know:
That all things are as all things show,
An' the trip don't pay for grease.
But, come wot may, the Heads they say
Them trips must never cease.

Now, to an' from the market town,
On the new Gunn's Gully road,
The motor cars speed up an' down,
An' trucks with many a load,
For there's the road, an' there's the car,
An' there's the chance; so, there you are!
Let progress forge ahead!
But the Heads they say them cars must pay
Or the ole train might dropp dead.

The ole train puffs out once a day
 On the ole Gunn's Gully spin;
With a man inside, some days, to ride
With Bowyang's old cream-tin.
And men ask, Why?  An' men ask who
The ole train serves like the morors do?
But the Heads must have their fun.
So they shoves a tax on the people's backs;
For that ole train's-got-to-run!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:17 min read
77

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCCDBD EFEFGGHAH IJIJKKLAL AFXFMMDXD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,195
Words 247
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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