Old Poetry Poetry • Poets • Essays • Forums •

Book: Jim of the Hills

Prose and Poetry
Dustjacket synopsis:
"In Jim of the Hills C.J. Dennis takes us to the bush-clad hills of Victoria and introduces "Lonely Jim, the bloke that don't say much". But, having arrived at thirty, Jim's been doing some thinking:

"Me an' my old dog's been talkin' quite a lot - of love and things:
Weighin' matters; an' we reckon this here love is full of stings . . .
Love an' all that talk, we reckon, is a silly sort of fake -
What's a plain man wantin' further is his wife can wash an' bake?"

"Jim, of course, is heading for a fall for which he'll earn the scorn of his old dog before both of them are captured by the "vision with the sunlight in her hair."

"First published in 1919, and not since republished, Jim of the Hills reveals in some measure Dennis's reaction to the world around his home at Toolangi in the hills near Melbourne. The birds, the trees, the work of the timbermen and the menace of forest fires - all were recorded in this warm and wryly romantic story in verse."

1 - 11 of 11
  • Flames
    It's human nature for a bashful bloke
      To bottle up, an' hesitate, an' doubt
    117 lines
  • The Reaper in the Bush
    He was lyin' on his bunk,
      In the hut behind the mill,
    97 lines
  • Murray's Ride
    I seldom get to hatin' men, nor had much cause to hate;
    To me, it just a foolish game to play, at any rate.
    63 lines
  • Red Robin
    Hi, it's a funny world!  This mornin' when I woke
    I saw red robin on the fence, an' heard the words he spoke.
    95 lines
  • The Wooer
    I nearly fell fair in my tracks.
    I'm trudgin' homeward with my axe
    142 lines
  • Old Bob Blair
    I got so down to it last night,
      With longin' for what could not be,
    166 lines
  • The Vision
    Of things that roam about the bush I ain't got many fears,
    For I knows their ways an' habits, and I've chummed with them for years.
    123 lines
  • A Freak of Spring
    At any other time of year
    It might have passed, but Spring is queer.
    141 lines
  • Swingin' Douglas
    There's a breeze about the mountains, it is singin' in the trees
    A song to mock the little men who chose to live at ease,
    77 lines
  • A Lonely Man
    When I'm out among the fellows, with the work to hold my mind,
    Then there's heaps of joy in livin' an' the world seems awful kind -
    118 lines
  • A Morning Song
    The thrush is in the wattle tree, an', "O, you pretty dear!"
    He's callin' to his little wife for all the bush to hear.
    69 lines
1 - 11 of 11

Add a comment

    : Comment:

1 - 11 of 11