Analysis of The Holy Constitution
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Read ye here the song as sung
By a chief named, briefly, Ung.
In the days when arguments were manly axes:
'O my people, this my Law
Is without defect or flaw,
And it governs ways and means and rates and taxes.
To amend it were unwise;
And if any tribesman tries,
He will meet with swift unerring retribution.
'Tis omnipotent, infallible, as all may recognise;
In short, it is out Noble Constitution.'
When this Neolithic man
Gave the world his early plan
Of tribal laws to bind his nascent nation,
He opined, with fine conceit,
That his System was complete,
And the acme of all human legislation.
'For all time this Law shall stand!'
He decreed with manner grand
And a splendid disregard for evolution;
And the Tory crowd that followed, bore this tenet in its hand:
'You must never touch the Sacred Constitution.'
So the Party then in power,
To improve the shining hour,
Contracted quite a pleasing little habit:
Safely guarded in their 'right,'
If they fancied aught in sight,
Being 'constitutionally safe,' they'd grab it.
And they told the rank and file,
With a patronising smile,
When the People talked of 'wrongs' and 'persecution,'
'It is very, very sad, and, no doubt, your case is bad;
But we cannot tamper with the Constitution.'
But meat-winners of the day
(Rabid Socialists were they)
By slow degrees arrived at this conclusion:
That the hide-bound Tory joss
Totalled mainly bluff and dross,
And its 'sacredness' was wholly an illusion.
Then with yells and growlings vile,
In their quaint primeval style
They planned a prehistoric revolution;
And with bits of tertiary rock they wrecked the Torries' smile
And, incidentally, the Constitution.
All this happened, as you know,
Quite a long, long time ago;
And the world has since known Greece and Rome and Sparta,
Medes and Persians and such fools
Who were bound by cast-iron rules
Which reminds us of Old England's Magna Charta.
There's no doubt when England pressed
Hard to have her wrongs redressed,
And 'persuaded' John to sign the resolution,
That hard-shell old Tory King thought it quite a shocking thing
To meddle with the Holy constitution.
So on, ever since King John,
As the world moves surely on,
And the People cry for reformation drastic,
You can hear right down the line
E'er the same old Tory whine
Protesting, 'It is most iconoclastic!'
'Tis the same old Tory way,
Same old 'everlasting nay.'
'Tis the same reactionary elocution.
But, who stood for 'Progress' yesterday is 'Retrograde' today;
And we've got to meddle with the Constitution.
While the Fatman waxes fat,
He's content to stop at that;
He will bless the Constitution and defend it;
But whene'er it needs repair.
'Tis the man who works his share
That uprises, patriotic, to amend it.
Oh, it's not the slightest use
When your 'right' becomes 'abuse'.
'Tis the law of legislative evolution
That every Great Reform is won, 'spite arguments abuse
By altering the blessed Constitution.
Gentle Tory, prithee hark
Back to Ung of ages dark,
And defend his blessed code with sandstone axes.
Mayhap in that murky bourne
You'll escape a fate forlorn,
Full of New Protection and Progressive Taxes.
And you won't be sorely missed,
If you fall beneath some fist,
For young Progress shouts for men of execution.
And, as regards reform and such, WE'LL DO JUST AS WE LIST,
For it's Ours, this High and Holy Constitution.
Scheme | AABCCDEEFBF GGFHHFIIFIF JJXKKLMMFXF NNFOOFMMFMF PPXQQHXHFXF RRSTTSNNFNF UULVVLWWFWF XXBYYDZZFZF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111 1011101 001110001010 1110111 1011011 011010101010 1011001 0110101 111111010 1010001001111 0111110010 1111 1011101 11011111010 1011101 1110101 00101110010 1111111 1011101 0010011010 001011101110011 11101010010 10101010 10101010 10010101010 1010011 1110101 10010001111 0110101 1011 10101110010 11101010111111 11101010010 1110101 1010001 11010111010 1011101 1010101 011001101010 111011 0110101 110010010 0111100111011 001000010 1110111 1011101 001111101010 1010011 10111101 10111110101 1111101 111011 00101110010 11111011110101 1101010010 1110111 1011101 00101101010 1111101 10011101 0101110010 1011101 110101 1010100010 111111011001 01111010010 101101 1101111 11100100011 111101 1011111 110101011 1110101 1110101 1011100010 110010111110001 110001010 101011 1111101 0011111110 101101 1010101 111010001010 0111101 1110111 1111111010 01010101111111 111011010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 3,263 |
Words | 583 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 327 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 72 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:55 min read
- 106 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Holy Constitution" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6671/the-holy-constitution>.
Discuss this Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In