page_title: The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
section_title: Publication details
hierarchical_section_title: The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke / Publication details
caption_attribution_description: Derived from page scans of an original copy, second edition (1917), of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, a work of Australian literature.
context_page_description: The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. Portions of the work appeared in The Bulletin between 1909 and 1915, the year that Dennis completed the verse novel and had it published by Angus & Robertson. Written in the rough and comical Australian slang that was his signature style, the work became immensely popular in Australia, selling over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year of publication. Though its popularity peaked during World War I and the interwar period, it remains a classic of Australian literature and the best-selling book of poetry ever produced in the country.
  The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke tells the story of Bill, a member of a larrikin push in Melbourne's Little Lon red-light district, who encounters Doreen, a young woman "of some social aspiration", in a local market. Narrated by Bill, the poems chronicle their courtship and marriage, detailing his transformation from a violence-prone gang member to a contented husband and father.
context_section_description: The first portion of the novel, The Stoush O' Day, was originally published in The Bulletin on 1 April 1909.  All bar two of the remaining chapters were also published in that magazine between 1909 and 1915.
  The completed work was first published in book form in Sydney on 9 October 1915.
  Publication details
caption: Illustration of 'the bloke' for verse 1. A Spring Song
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