Analysis of The Famine and The Feast

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



Cackle and lay, cackle and lay!
How many eggs did you get to-day?
None in the manger, and none in the shed,
None in the box where the chickens are fed,
None in the tussocks and none in the tub,
And only a little one out in the scrub.
Oh, I say!  Dumplings to-day.
I fear that the hens must be laying away.

Cackle and lay, cackle and lay!
How many eggs did you get to-day?
Two in the manger, and four in the shed,
Six in the box where the chickens are fed,
Two in the tussocks and ten in the tub,
And nearly two dozen right out in the scrub.
Hip, hooray!  Pudding to-day!
I think that the hens are beginning to lay.


Scheme AAbbccaa AAbbccaa
Poetic Form
Metre 10011001 110111111 1001001001 1001101011 100101001 01001011001 1111011 11101111001 10011001 110111111 1001001001 1001101011 100101001 01011011001 1011011 11101101011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 626
Words 131
Sentences 13
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 230
Words per stanza (avg) 64
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
64

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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