Aussie historian, author & entertainer Jim Haynes joins Overnight each week for his unique knowledge of the not-so-famous characters from Australia’s history.  This week Jim shines the spotlight on C J Dennis – The Bard of Cup Week

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis (7 September 1876 – 22 June 1938), better known as C. J. Dennis was the most popular poet in Australia for many years at the beginning of the twentieth century and is known for The Sentimental Bloke and his children’s verse.

What most Australians, especially those born outside of Victoria, don’t know is that Dennis wrote over 3 000 poems about a huge variety of subjects including whole series on birds, roads of Victoria, all the characters in a generic country town, the streets of Melbourne, a group of philosophising pensioners and current events like feats of aviation, new discoveries and the deaths of great Australians.

He also wrote a whole book of political satire in verse called The Glugs of Gosh and his daily poems, written for the Herald Sun newspapers, are a chronicle of Australian social history from 1922 until his death in 1938.

Download this podcast here