The Austra--laise: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Austra--laise, credited to C. J. Dennis, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox volunteers bring you 6 recordings of The Austra--laise by C.J.Dennis. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 13, 2013. THE AUSTRALAISE is a poem composed by C.J. Dennis, widely considered to the poet laureate of vernacular verse in Australia. It first appeared in his collection, Backblock Ballads and Other Verses, the first edition of which was published in 1913. A source from which Dennis drew inspiration was W.T. Goodge's poem The Great Australian Adjective, which first appeared in the Bulletin in 1898. Designed to be sung to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers, this poem features two prominent aspects of Australian literature - profanity and patriotism. While the profanity is extremely mild today's standards, the poem is still extremely appealing because of Dennis' mocking subversion of the grandiloquence that characterizes most national anthems.(Summary by Algy Pug)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Austra--laise
• Author credits: C. J. Dennis
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 6
• Listed recording duration: 19:07

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• historical fiction
• humor
• war stories

Track guide

1. The Australaise - Read by ALP — 3:08
2. The Australaise - Read by BLT — 2:34
3. The Australaise - Read by CMP — 3:05
4. The Australaise - Read by JCM — 5:00
5. The Australaise - Read by JM — 2:43
6. The Australaise - Read by SCC — 2:40

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.