SELECTED WORKS OF C.J. DENNIS book cover
  Selected Works of C.J. Dennis
Introduced by Barry Watts
1988

Cover painting by Hal Gye
   

 

Dustjacket synopsis:
"The sentimental bloke and his Doreen, Ginger Mick and Rose, Digger Smith and the many other larrikins, lasses, soldiers and settlers that people the verse stories of C.J. Dennis won the hearts of fellow Australians when first they appeared early this century. Such is the humanity to be found in their lives and the wisdom and humour in the teeling of their stories that they continue to cast their spell.

"Yet, while best known for The Sentimental Bloke and other vernacular verse tales, Dennis also wrote many a salty bush ballad, the lilting fantasy that is The Glugs of Gosh, a collection of merry verses for children and, in later years, a weekly verse for the Melbourne Herald. This collection is a sampler including something from each, presented with many of the sensitive illustrations Hal Gye prepared for the original editions.

"Few who turn these pages will fail to respond with joy to the robust humour and human-hearted tenderness that light Dennis's work and are his great contribution to Australian writing."

Contents:

Introduction

THE SONGS OF A SENTIMENTAL BLOKE
A Spring Song
The Intro
The Stoush o'Day
The Play
Mar
Hitched
Beef Tea
Uncle Jim
The Kid
The Mooch o' Life

THE MOODS OF GINGER MICK
Duck an' Fowl
War
The Call of Stoush
The Push
Ginger's Cobber
In Spadger's Lane
A Letter to the Front
Rabbits
The Game
"A Gallant Gentleman

DOREEN
Washing Day
Possum

ROSE OF SPADGERS
The Faltering Knight
A Holy War
The Crusaders
"'Ave a 'Eart!
The Knight's Return
A Woman's Way
Listener's Luck
The Dance
Spike Wegg
Narcissus

DIGGER SMITH
Before the War
Digger Smith
West
Over the Fence
A Digger's Tale
Half a Man
Jim

THE GLUGS OF GOSH
The Glug Quest
Joi, the Glug
The Stones of Gosh
Ogs
Emily Ann
The Little Red Dog

JIM OF THE HILLS
A Morning Song
A Freak of Spring
The Vision
The Wooer
Red Robin
Flames
Grey Thrush

ROUNDABOUT
The Baker
The Ant Explorer
The Tram-man
The Swagman
The Postman
Hist!
The Traveller
The Triantiwontigongolope
The Circus
A Change of Air
Going to School

BACKBLOCK BALLADS AND LATER VERSES
The Austra-laise
An Old Master
"Paw"
Wheat
A Guide for Poits
'Urry!
Hopeful Hawkins
The Silent Member
The Philistine
The Bridge Across the Crick
A Song of Rain
Hymn of Futility

THE SINGING GARDEN
Green Walls
The Lyretail
The Indian Myna
The Pallid Cuckoo
Heat Wave
The Silver-Eye
The Ground Thrush
The Yellow Robin
Dusk

JOURNALIST DAYS (A selection of poems from the Melbourne Herald)
Vagrant's Revenge
Show Thoughts from the Bush
The Happy Man
Two Veterans
Our Town Awakes
Unconsidered Trifles

First Paragraph from the Introduction:

The Australian poet C. J. Dennis was at times very vague about his early background. Even his friend and biographer, Alec Chisholm, admitted to being confused when he tried to establish the truth about Dennis's childhood and youth. Chisholm's book, C. J. Dennis - His Remarkable Career, first published in 1946, notes the gaps in Dennis's life story which occur primarily in his teenage years and in his early twenties. Dennis was vague about these periods himself, even with his friends. When he was in his mid-thirties he told his mentor and friend, Robert Croll, a man of letters and author of several books, that he did not know the year of his birth. Dennis's biographical note which he gave to Croll in 1913 says, "Born in Auburn, SA, some time in late seventies - don't know exact year, say '77 or '78 . . . " He was actually born in 1876, on 7 September, to James Dennis and his second wife Katherine, and was baptised three days later as Clarence Michael James.

As Clarence Michael grew to maturity, he styled his name differently, dropping his given middle name altogether until eventually he was known as "C. J. Dennis" or in his later years, somewhat allectionately, as "Den".

A second son, Francis Albert (known as Bert), was born into the Dennis family in 1880 and, after a gap of six years, their third and final child, Claude Leo, arrived.

The death of Kate Dennis when she was thirty-seven years old caused a major upheaval in the family. She died in Adelaide on 16 August 1890 and was buried there in the West Terrace Cemetery. At this time Clarrie was a fourteen-year-old adolescent, Bert was ten and young Claude just four and a half. Their father was himself fifty-four and now fully occupied in running the Gladstone Hotel at Gladstone and hardly keen to tend to the upbringing of his growing family. A quick solution to this situation became imperative.

Two spinster sisters of the late Kate Dennis came to the family's rescue. Mary Arm and Sarah Tobin moved into the Dennis establishment and provided the comfort and direction their three Dennis nephews needed.

The sisters brought to their task some quaint attitudes of gentility which now seem to be at odds with the hotel environment into which their charges had been born. The aunts pampered the lads and dressed them in starched suits and patent leather shoes, setting them apart from their mates by being over-protective, strict and decidedly old-fashioned.

Due to his Little Lord Fauntleroy appearance, young Clarrie became subjected to much teasing and ridicule from other young men of his age. At school Clarrie Dennis had mostly played with the girls and was considered to be effeminate.

It has since been propounded by Chisholm and others that the "tough guys" in C, J. Dennis's subsequent literary career were created as deliberate contrasts to the "lavender and lace" of his adolescent upbringing.

From the Angus and Robertson hardback edition, 1988.

Copyright © Perry Middlemiss 2002-03