Ruined Reversolet

LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 recordings of A Ruined Reversolet by C. J. Dennis. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 28, 2012.

Clarence James Dennis was an Australian poet and journalist. In his varied career, he worked as a barman, shearer, solicitor's clerk, newspaper proprietor and (as do many Australians) a civil servant, before settling down in a rural retreat at Toolangi, in the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne.

His most famous work is "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", a verse novel written in an Australian vernacular and first published in 1915. Despite its artless presentation, Dennis' verse is constructed with great skill, and attracted enthusiastic reviews from such august critics as H.G. Wells. E.V. Lucas and Sir John Betjeman.

Dennis' significance as a literary figure has been recognized by the establishment of C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry, which is awarded annually as part of the Premier's Literary Awards for the state of Victoria.