Black Saturday



They say a touch of spring is in the air;
They say the wattle trees with bloom are gay;
They say each garden now begins to wear
(Not that I care)
A festal garb that waxes day by day
In loneliness.  They tell, too, of blue skies
Aglow with hope . . . I laugh them all to scorn,
And gaze upon these things with listless eyes
That see nought but a vista most forlorn.

They say that bird songs come now with a rush
Of rarest melody; the ambient air
Thrills to the voice of blackbird and of thrush
(I answer 'Tush!
Let 'em go sing their heads off.  I don't care.')
They say a kindly sun beams o'er the earth.
They say - Bah!  Who pays heed to what they say?
Life is a sham; a mockery is mirth;
I'm making out my income tax today.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
107

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAABCDCD EAEXAFBFB
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 717
Words 148
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 9, 9

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis

 · 1876 · Auburn
 · 1938 · Melbourne

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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