AustLit logo
The Stones of Gosh single work   poetry   humour   satire   "Now, here is a tale of the Glugs of Gosh,"
  • Author:agent C. J. Dennis http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/dennis-c-j-clarence-james
Issue Details: First known date: 1915... 1915 The Stones of Gosh
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

All Publication Details

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Bulletin vol. 36 no. 1847 8 July 1915 Z615796 1915 periodical issue 1915 pg. 6-7
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Glugs of Gosh C. J. Dennis , Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1917 Z855632 1917 selected work poetry humour satire The Glugs of Gosh was C. J. Dennis' fourth book and his third with illustrator Hal Gye and publishers Angus and Robertson. It was published shortly before Doreen the miniature sequel to The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which had been dashed off for marketing as a Christmas gift in late 1917. The Glugs of Gosh, however, not only abandoned the vernacular idiom of Dennis' 'Sentimental Bloke' works, it also carried a very different message. With his invented race of 'Glugs' who inhabited the mythical land of 'Gosh', Dennis created a sly satire on social conformity, intellectual cowardice, and incompetent governance. But as Philip Butterss points out, the simple style of the work is also highly reminiscent of Dennis' verse for children.

    According to Dennis' wife, The Glugs of Gosh had originated as verse penned to 'amuse' Barry Roberts, the younger son of Dennis' friends and patrons, Garry and Roberta Roberts. The Roberts' presentation copy of the eventual work is annotated 'B. J. Roberts - Sep. 1917 / For whom 'Joi the Glug' was written on 23.6.1914'. In 1915, Dennis saw fit to expand the idea for a wider audience. Six of the thirteen poems in The Glugs of Gosh (and part of a seventh), were published in the Bulletin, the first being 'Joi, the Glug', which appeared on 3 June 1915.

    After the extraordinary success of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, Angus and Robertson were evidently keen to test the limits of Dennis' popularity, and he was commissioned to expand his 'Glugs' series as a book. Dennis' wife wrote that the couple were married (July 1917) after the completion of the book, and that shortly thereafter they travelled to Sydney and met Dennis' publisher George Robertson, and The Glugs of Gosh went to press. Dennis dedicated the work to his wife.

    Angus and Robertson published The Glugs of Gosh in a variety of different editions. The ordinary edition was priced at Four Shillings, as was the 'Pocket Edition for the Trenches' - which hoped to capitalise on the wartime popularity of Dennis' earlier works. The Glugs of Gosh was not a commercial success, however. The deluxe 'Blue Wren' edition initially published by Angus and Robertson at Seven Shillings and Sixpence was eventually remaindered at Sixpence a copy, and an edition that had been advertised for publication in North America (as The Stones of Gosh) was apparently never issued. In 1974, an abridged version of The Glugs of Gosh, containing two poems from the original work arranged as a continuous narrative, was published as a children's book.

    Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1917
    pg. 27-32
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of Australian Humorous Verse Bill Scott , Ringwood : Penguin , 1984 Z408517 1984 anthology poetry humour Ringwood : Penguin , 1984 pg. 19-22
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Selected Works of C. J. Dennis C. J. Dennis , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1988 Z127738 1988 selected work poetry humour North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1988 pg. 149-151
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Sting in the Wattle : Australian Satirical Verse Philip Neilsen (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 Z375066 1993 anthology poetry correspondence extract satire humour war literature St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1993 pg. 60-63
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Bugger the Music, Give us a Poem! Keith McKenry , Sydney : ABC Audio , 1998 Z1275972 1998 anthology poetry Sydney : ABC Audio , 1998
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Sentimental Bloke, The Poems of C. J. Dennis C. J. Dennis , Jack Thompson , Coogee : FinePoets , 2010 Z1669537 2010 selected work poetry Coogee : FinePoets , 2010
X