Poets Cornered: Larrikin Metre

As those great American poets, Messrs Roger and Hammarstein put it:

Let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start.

Let’s get clear, first of all, about who I’m writing for. Poetry isn’t everybody’s cup of tea – I know that. Poets Cornered is directed at people who are interested in poetry, and who would like to develop their understanding and skills in writing. Each issue will explore some facet of the poet’s trade. Whatever style of poetry you prefer to read or write, the poet’s apprenticeship is a long one.

Enough introduction. Let’s get down to work..

Larrikin Metre

According to Sidney Baker (inThe Australian Language, published in the 1960s) the word larrikin ‘came into currency in Melbourne a little before 1870′. The word is still in popul;ar use in Australia, and refers to wild young men – louts or hoons or – as they were rather quaintly referred to in an 1880s book: mischievous young fellows, larkers.

At the turn of the 19th century, an Australian poet named C J Dennis wrote a set of poems about a young larrikin – Bill – and his love for Doreen. The collection, entitled “Sentimental Bloke”, has been continuously in print since the early 1900s in Australia

C J Dennis employed the iambic pentameter as the basic metre for this collection of narrative poems, but he introduced a variation: the fourth line in each stanza was a dimeter, not a pentameter (that is, it had two beats, and not five).

Here are the opening stanza of perhaps his most famous poem, “The Play”. If you don’t know this poem, then – to quote Fred Dagg, that other great man of Australian letters – you are a “fool to yourself and a burden to society”.

The stanza Beats Rhyming

Scheme

Wot’s in/ a name?/– she sez /. . . An’ then /she sighs, 5 A

An’ clasps /’er litt/ le ‘ands,/ an’ rolls/ “er eyes. 5 A

“A rose/,” she sez,/ “be an/y oth/er name 5 B

Would smell/ the same/. 2 B

Oh, w”ere/fore art /you Ro/meo/, young sir? / 5 C

Chuck yer/ ole pot,/ an’ change /yer mon/iker!” 5 C

Doreen/ an’ me,/ we bin /to see/ a show– 5

The swell/ two-doll/ar touch./ Bong tong/, yeh know. 5

A chair/ apiece /wiv vel/ vit on/ the seat; 5

A slap/-up treat. / 2

The drarm/er’s writ /be Shakes/peare, years /ago, 5

About/ a bar/my goat/ called Ro/meo/. 5

Yes , I know – it’s not strictly iambic – the opening line begins with a troche, not an iamb. So does the final line of the first stanza. But overall, the meter is iambic pentameter; each line is composed of five feet, and each foot has an unstresses syllable followed by a stressed syllable. (In the example, the stress syllable is shown in bold.)

The Variation

Except that C J Dennis introduces a variation: the fourth line in the stanza has only two beats or feet. The rhyming pattern is AABBCC. There’s probably a name for this metre, but I’ve not been able to locate it, so I’m calling it The Larrikin Metre or The CJ Dennis form.

Set yourself a writing task

In “The Play”, C J Dennis retells the story of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in Larrikin Metre.

The key features of Larrikin metres are:

• Six line per stanza
• Lines 1-3 and 5-6 is each stanza are iambic pentameter; line 4 is a dimeter (two beats)
• The rhyming pattern is AABBCC

Retell the story of another famous Shakepeare play is Larrikin metre. Or you retell a famous fairy story, or chapter of Star Wars. The key criteria are that your topic must be very well known, and the poetic form must be CJ Dennis or Larrikin Metre.

Some more examples of Larrikin metre

On Shakespeare

To be or not to be? What does he mean:

Questions as odd as that are rarely seen

Are we supposed to think that this must be

Profundity?

I’d rather read a writer of more use

Say Barbara Cartland, or p’raps Dr Suess.

And just in case you’re beginning to feel comfortable with Larrikin Metre, here’s a close rtelatively. It doesn’t differs in terms of metre, only in terms of its rhyming pattern, which is ABABCC.

On Poets generally

For my friend and fellow poet, Myron Lysenko

Poets are argumentative, I’ve found

Not overly polite in conversation,

Inclined to waffle, strive to be profound

Such affectation!

No matter if you’re slow, you will soon know it

You can’t talk common sense to any poet

Few poets these days want to write like Byron

Ottavo Rima isn’t quite their medium

Instead we readers find we’re stuck with Myron

Lysenko’s tedium.

No grand themes here. No stimulus here to think

His are the verses of the kitchen sink.

He loves a girl. He leaves – or she leaves him

One wants a child and asks him to be father

Or perhaps an epic ode to the dim sim

I think I’d rather

Sit in my lounge at home and watch TV

Or spend the evening quietly sipping tea.

Poets and alcohol – now there’s a mix

The poets say grog helps – it numbs the pain

And stimulates their art – just like a fix

They’re off their brain.

They burble, say enlightenment is dawning

But can’t recall a single word next morning

Their god is Col-er-idge – who claimed he wrote

His famous “Kubla Khan” while taking drugs

Changed states of consciousness got his first vote

Irrational thug!

The bloke from Porlock is, in truth, Reality

He’s not to blame for Kubla Khan’s banality.

But Coleridge and his ilk at least grasped rhythm

It really is a pity, don’t you think

That modern poets cannot keep up with them

Their free verse stinks!

No rhyme, no rhythm, free verse has no music

No wonder that it makes both me and you sick.