Book: Random Verse 1952

Dustjacket synopsis:
"The publication of a new volume of verse from the pen of C. J. Dennis is an event of literary importance to Australia. Although it is well over thirty years since "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke" brought C. J. Dennis from obscurity to the front rank of Australian poetry, today he still remains Australia's most popular poet.

"When Dennis died in 1938, he left among his papers a wealth of unpublished verse and writings. It is a fitting postscript to his earlier works that his widow should have been entrusted with making this delightful selection of "Random Verse," for no other person knew better every mood and thought of this pungent philosopher and lord of "slanguage." Readers will agree with Mrs. Dennis that her salvage has been well worth while.

"Apart from the humorous slang which punctuates much of this verse, its greatest appeal will be found in the humour, pathos, sentiment and kindly view of human nature. It is the type of verse which makes one feel that, come what may, life still is good. Here, then, is something to quicken the senses and bring a smile or two, from one sentimental bloke to another."

Foreword by the editor
In making this selection of verses from the many that appeared in the Melbourne "Herald" during C. J. Dennis's association with that paper, I found myself in a quandary. There was so much to choose from. Which verses would I use, and which put aside for future reference?

I have used very little political verse, although politics are much the same as they were when the verses were written, but politicians come and politicians go, and few people remember those who have gone.

I have tried to give the reader an idea of the many facets of the poet's work. There is some laughter, there are some tears, and there is much to give quiet enjoyment to the thoughtful.

C. J. Dennis has been dead over twelve years, and in reading through the verse I was amazed at the freshness of it and how very applicable some of it is to the present time.

John Masefield, England's Poet Laureate, said, on the death of Dennis, that it would be a great pity if such a terrific amount of good work should be forgotten. I have tried to rescue some of it, and think my salvage has been worth while.

• Another Economic Riddle

  I venerate economists
    As very learned blokes,

  31 lines
• Brightness Breaches and the Beak

  Bright young thing: Thou on the beaches
  Life is gay and pleasure laden

  40 lines
• Perpetual Motion

  What (said the poet) should we care
    For all this mad world's phantasies,

  34 lines
• Introducing the Day Family

  Sun Day is a simple child,
  Face new washed and shining;

  48 lines
• Galloping Horses

  Oh, this is the week when no rhymster may rhyme
  On the joy of the bush or the ills of the time,

  30 lines
• Spots Through the Ages

  Romance goes out of everything in these days of ill grace,
  And even old John Barleycorn grows "standardised" apace;

  25 lines
• Summer Sanctuary

  Not upon the crowded beaches
  Where the sun beats fierce and hot;

  24 lines
• Country Towns - Portland

  Here she hides, an aged dame.
  Here she dreams beside the waves.

  32 lines, 1 comment
• Vale` John Monash

  So ends a life, lived to the full alway,
    Thro' peace, thro' war, thro' honored peace again,

  16 lines
• The Roads' End

  Old Ben, the pensioner, is going down to die.
  Huddled in the mail-car, he turns a wistful eye

  32 lines, 1 comment
• The Fool and the Fire

  A fool and a bag in a belt of scrub,
  Cloudless skies and the still hot days,

  24 lines
• Song of Snobs

  When Leonardo was a lad there was a certain set
  Who snubbed him most outrageously - in fact, they snub him yet

  27 lines
• Sanctuary Scorned [1936]

  Oh, is there not one place on earth
  Where man's goodwill has gone from birth

  42 lines
• Goophic Phantasm

  Tho' I own I have no adequate proofs
  Of this queer tale of the quaint old Goophs -

  50 lines
• March of Memories

  Left, right - left, right . . .
  We march today for memories (the grizzled Digger said)

  60 lines
• The Cab Horses' Story

  Now, you wouldn't imagine, to look at me,
    That I was a racehorse once.

  68 lines
• The Banana's Lullaby

  When grandma wished to keep her fruit
  Her apples she would take

  26 lines, 1 comment
• Country Roads ~ The New Chum Road

  A new chum went, to ease his care,
  A-many years ago,

  38 lines
• Country Roads ~ White Horse Road

  By White Horse Tavern, White Horse Road
  In olden days wound down;

  33 lines
• Country Roads ~ Pretty Sally

  The diggers came from Bendigo,
  From Albury the drovers,

  30 lines
• 'Bobbie' for Brotherhood

  Lang syne I penned a mickle rhyme
  That muckle grief brocht to my soul;

  40 lines
• A Dogs' View

  I'm only just a common racing dog,
    Simple in habit, and my diet's plain.

  25 lines, 1 comment
• The Shrine

  For them we have builded a temple
  To stand as a visible sign.

  48 lines
• Aesthete in the Avenue

  Within the wooded avenue I stood,
    And I was proud.

  42 lines
• When So Dispoged

  Oh, foolish flapper, keen to be
    Considered cute and up-to-date,

  38 lines
• March Flies

  Now comes the time when we douse flies
    With various kinds of sprays -

  36 lines
• To a Dead Mate

  There's many a man who rides today
    In the lonely, far out-back;

  35 lines
• The Madman

  "I should go mad," he said, "in such a place!
  The lack of company, the loneliness!

  28 lines
• Things to Come

  When you have gone and I have gone
  Beyond the ken of earthly things,

  32 lines, 1 comment
• Hats

  I sing of the hat, of the human lid,
    The cadev, the tile, or whatever you please,

  25 lines
• Birthday Honours

  My natal day was yesterday;
    And so I said to Fate,

  25 lines
• The Little People

  'Twas a long bush night; and the old hut light
  Shone out thro' the open door

  40 lines
• Renascence

  World war had come - and gone. It seemed the end.
  Spent, broken, by the last despair oppressed,

  32 lines, 1 comment
• Autumn Song

  With the advent of the Autumn
  Trees behave as Nature taught 'em;

  26 lines, 3 comments
• Dad on the Test

  I reckon (said Dad) that the country's pests
  Is this here wireless an' these here Tests.

  26 lines
• Our Town Awakes

  Six o'clock. From the railway yard
  The engine toots; careering hard,

  40 lines
• Spring Delirium

  Gold days give way to sudden rain,
    But what, I ask, of that?

  52 lines, 3 comments
• Christmas Scene

  To this green place the tourists troop,
  By twos, by threes, and group by group,

  52 lines
• The Elusive New Zoo Gnu

  They had a new gnu at the Zoo
  And nobody knew.

  49 lines
• The Broken Sanctuary

  I 'ad been bushed in city streets,
    Where the bricks and mortar grow.

  43 lines
• Politics for Tots: Lesson 2~ “The Party”

  Now, children, in this Lesson Two,
  Briefly we'll make some mention

  24 lines
• My Scenario

  Oh, I've got a lovely story that I've thought out all myself.
    It will make a gorgeous picture, I am sure.

  25 lines
• Yule Fever (With apologies to the King's Minstrel)

  I must go down to the shops again, to the crowded shops go I
  And all I have is a long list of the gifts that I must buy,

  24 lines, 1 comment
• The Barber's Story

  "Mornin'," I sez to 'im,
  Gloomy, 'e seemed to be.

  37 lines
• The Germ Chaser

  I knew a careful lady once
  Who read a book by Dr. Bunce,

  50 lines
• A Beauty Hint

  Sweet, think how much the better it would be
    If you thro' life should thus preserve your beauty.

  30 lines
• Quantum Sufficit

  "I only said this German plan
  Had points," remarked the small, meek man.

  42 lines
• Thistledown

  She danced thro' life as light as thistledown,
  The grace of Columbine, charm of Pierette,

  24 lines
• All Fools' Day

  Now is the day when arrant fools
    Play outworn tricks on sober men!

  25 lines
• Country Towns - Boort

  She knows the Mallee's tragedy
    Of thwarted hope, of pain,

  40 lines
• The Broken-Teapot

  Mum's bit of egg money on the mantelpiece
    In the broken teapot in the olden days,

  31 lines
• Consummation

  They may be duds or they may be drones,
    Or legislators heaven-sent;

  29 lines
• The Demon Milk

  "Yer honor, please!" the prisoner said,
    "It isn't wot you think.

  47 lines
• The Dove Has A Word

  With a sprig in my beak, I repeatedly seek
    For a spot where a poor bird may rest,

  30 lines
• The Exiles

  They were a merrie companie,
    Who'd dwelt together all these years;

  34 lines, 1 comment
• Lines Written in Hospital

  Upon a snowy bed I lie,
    Too placid to complain,

  26 lines
• Frankenstein

  We roam about the countryside
  And view the farmlands rolling wide -

  40 lines
• Youth Revisited

  Can this be the old town of wheat-teams and saddle-hacks,
    Of Ted Toll's smithy, with the anvil ringing clear,

  34 lines
• John Galsworthy

  Not for vague honors, not for treacherous power
    He lived and toiled thro' this, his earthy span;

  26 lines
• Laissez-Faire

  We'd harbored them on hovels, and in dens,
    Altho' in price they counted less than cattle,

  34 lines
• The Shorter Week

  I worked for fifty hours a week,
    And someone said to me,

  38 lines
• The Spoilers

  Ye are the Great White People, masters and lords of the earth,
  Spreading your stern dominion over the world's wide girth.

  34 lines
• In A Forest Garden: A Promise of Spring

  Spring surely must be near.  High over head
    The kind blue heavens bend to timbers tall;

  34 lines
• The Rose and the Bee

  "Well, what tidings today?" said the bee
    To the burgeoning rose.

  34 lines
• The Old White Horse

  In olden days the Old White Horse
    Stood brave against the sky;

  35 lines

• By me, right now

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