Fathercraft

Well (said the small, meek man) we look for change
   In this sad world, for these are stirring days;
And men pin hopes to methods new and strange
   And see lost happiness thro' altered ways.
And I, who many a bitter cup have quaffed,
Hailed with delight this cult of Fathercraft.

But (said the small, meek man) I've scanned the rules
   And studied well all that this author says,
Oh, I have pinned such faith to modern schools,
   Hoping one day to see a great light blaze.
And now, it seems, I'm rather at a loss;
For all I glean is that the wife should be boss.

If (said the small, meek man) yielding one's pay,
   Yielding one's will, seems new to Fathercraft,
And letting woman have her own sweet way;
   Then (said the small, meek man) the author's daft!
I had such hopes! But, far as I can see,
Things go on in the same old way. Ah, me!

Background and Analysis of This Poem

C. J. Dennis's Fathercraft belongs to the world of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, the verse novel that made Dennis one of Australia's most beloved popular poets. First published in book form in 1915, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke follows Bill, a rough Melbourne larrikin, through courtship, marriage and domestic life with Doreen. The Australian Dictionary of Biography describes Dennis's extraordinary popularity and his gift for turning Australian slang into poetry that felt lively, comic and emotionally direct Australian Dictionary of Biography. Fathercraft sits beautifully within that achievement because it treats fatherhood not as an abstract ideal, but as a practical, comic and tender apprenticeship.

The title is part of the joke. "Fathercraft" sounds almost like a trade or a technical discipline, as if becoming a father were a skill one might learn from a manual, a night class or a stern instructor with diagrams. Bill, however, discovers that fatherhood arrives less like a neat craft than a domestic ambush. The child has appeared, the household has changed, and the former street-wise bloke must now face a world of crying, nursing, wonder, fear and baffled devotion. Dennis's humour depends on that contrast between Bill's old masculine confidence and the tiny new authority that has entered the home.

As in the rest of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, the poem's voice is central. Bill's vernacular does much of the emotional work. His slang and comic phrasing keep the poem grounded in working-class Australian life, but they also protect him from sounding too polished or sentimental. He is deeply moved, though he would probably rather trip over a kerb than say so in refined literary language. Dennis lets tenderness leak through the rough edges of speech. That is why Bill remains so appealing: he is not suddenly transformed into a model gentleman. He remains recognisably himself, only softened and enlarged by love.

The poem also marks an important stage in Bill's moral growth. In the earlier poems, Doreen calls him towards courtship, loyalty and a more settled domestic future. In Fathercraft, the child intensifies that change. Fatherhood makes Bill responsible in a new way. He is no longer thinking only of romance or his own reform; he is confronted with dependence itself. The baby cannot argue, flatter or moralise, yet its presence reorganises the emotional centre of the household. Dennis understands that small children can be astonishingly powerful for people who cannot yet hold up their own heads. A baby may not command in words, but the household obeys all the same.

There is a broader Australian literary significance here, too. Dennis helped shift poetic attention towards urban working-class speech and everyday domestic experience. The University of Sydney Library's digitised copy of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke preserves the work's larger arc from larrikin courtship to married family life University of Sydney Library. That arc matters because Bill's story is not only romantic comedy. It is a comic education in feeling. Fathercraft shows that the home, nursery and family table can be as important to character as any bush track, battlefield or public stage.

For modern readers, Fathercraft remains warm because it treats fatherhood with both humour and respect. Dennis does not pretend that Bill knows exactly what he is doing. In fact, much of the poem's charm comes from his uncertainty. But the uncertainty is loving. The rough bloke who once measured himself by street codes now finds himself learning a softer and more demanding craft. Dennis's achievement is to make that change funny without making it small. Fatherhood, in this poem, is not a sentimental decoration added to Bill's life. It is the next great lesson in how to become fully human.