Sentimental Bloke and Other Verses

"[Y]eh mauls King's English when yeh yaps, an 'angs flash frills on ev'rythink yeh say. I ain't no grammarist meself, per'aps, but langwidge is a 'elp, I owns," sez Unk, "when things is goin crook." An' 'ere 'e wunk.

This book is in the top three most obscenely Australian things I've ever read.

This verse novel follows the life of 'The Kid' of Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. Written at a time when the Australian vernacular really came into its own, this originally serialised collection of verse showcases the rough-edged beauty of the now-faded and globalised Australian language.

The chapter 'The Play' is reason enough to track this down. In all his colloquial glory, The Kid retells Shakespeare's ' Romeo and Juliet' as seen through his show more rough-and-ready eyes.

"Wot's in a name?" she sez...An' then she sighs,/An' clasps her little 'ands, an' rolls 'er eyes./"A rose," she sez, "be any other name/Would smell the same./Oh, w'erefore art you Romeo, young sir?/Chuck yer ole pot, an' change yer moniker!"

The Australian way of speaking is too readily dismissed as just an accent, or a few idiosyncratic turns of phrase, but this work showcases the breadth and beauty of which it is more than capable. And while it is certainly heavy on the sentiment, as the title may suggest, the language alone breathes new life into the trope of love won, lost, and won again. show less

CJ Dennis is my favourite Australian writer. I love the way he manages to get the sound of his character's speech into the written word. It can be a challenge to read but once mastered his stories are a delight to read.