By Rev. Geoff Leslie, Baptist church I have read and enjoyed the poems of ‘The Sentimental Bloke’ by C. J. Dennis many times, in which a love story between Bill and his Doreen is told in 1920′s Australian larrikin slang. It is sentimental and sweet, but very enjoyable.

I noticed during a recent re-reading that when Bill falls in love with Doreen – a girl who works in the local pickle factory chopping up the cabbage stalks – it elevates him to be a much better person.

I think love always does that. Love is a wonderful power in this world and always changes a person for the best.

When we first meet Bill he loves drinking, gambling and fighting. He is part of a gang that roams the back streets of central Melbourne, getting in “stoushes” in “Little Lon” on a Saturday night. When he first spots Doreen she will have nothing to do with him. He speaks, but with a toss of her head and swish of her skirt, she passes on her queenly way. Poor Bill is plunged into a sense of his own unworthiness, and every time he sees her, his soul is stabbed with sad and remorseful thoughts that he is not fit for such a princess.

Through Ginger Mick, the rabbit-man, his true comrade, Bill finally gets to meet her and they eventually become engaged. He speaks of .”the way she raised ‘er shinin’ eyes to mine. soft in the moonlight.oh spare me days! A bloke goes all loose inside. It makes ‘im all ashamed uv wot ‘e’s been, to look inter the eyes of my Doreen.”

It is remarkable that love can make a person feel unworthy and ashamed. But it is true and right. When one first realises God’s eternal love, it has the same effect. We become aware that unworthiness and forgiveness are the big issues.

Doreen agrees to marriage but insists that Bill learn his lesson. He has to hold up three fingers and tick off on each finger as he recites, “No more drinkin’!”; ‘No more gamblin’!”, and no more fightin’!” These three great weaknesses of Bill’s character must be changed if he is to enjoy his new love. So, as he tells it,

“For ‘er sweet sake I’ve chucked it clean;

The pubs and schools an’ all that leery game.

For when a bloke ‘as come to know Doreen it ain’t the same.

There’s ‘igher things, she sez, for blokes to do;

An’ I am ‘arf believin’ that it’s true.”

Love not only makes a bloke feel ashamed of himself, it completely transforms him into a whole new life. This is the second part of being a true believer in God. Our lives must be straightened out, our bad ways renounced, and it is easy to do because we do it for love.

In a wonderful part of the poem, we read how just once Bill forgot his new life and had a relapse two months after the wedding. Some old companions met him and led him astray, till he shambled home drunk and penniless at the 5 in the morning.

He expects a tongue lashing, but she says nothing, just gives him a look. He is struck to the heart.

“Poor ‘urt Doreen! Gorstruth! I’d sooner fight wiv fifty men

Than git one look like that frum ‘er agen!”

He sneaks to bed feeling crook and ashamed. Next thing he knows she wakes him, lifts his head and gives him a cup of beef tea. Her kindness and forgiving spirit overwhelm him and “I ‘ides me face. an’ blubbers like a kid.”

Eventually they leave the city with its pitfalls and reminders and set up home in an orchard in the bush. Then they have a son and Bill is off in raptures again. After being allowed to see the newborn, the father is hustled out of the room when the baby cries. Standing in the hospital corridor he looks at his big rough hands.

“A long, long time I looks at my two ‘ands.

“They’re all I got” I thinks, “they’re all that stands

Twixt this ‘ard world and them I calls me own.

An’ fer their sakes I’ll work ‘em to the bone.”

His newfound happiness is no longer self-centred. It has learned to express itself in giving, and working and loving. As the Bible says, If God loved us, we ought to love one another. Bill ends the story sitting in the sunset in the orchard, looking back on a good day’s work well done, and feeling tha t it’s good to be alive.

“Livin’ an’ lovin’; learnin’ day by day;

Pausin’ a minute in the barmy strife

To find that ‘elpin’ others on the way

Is gold coined fer yer profit — such is life.”

I don’t think C. J. Dennis expected his works to make the basis for a sermon, but true love always has the same result – it makes a person change. God’s love is always waiting for us.

(With grateful acknowledgement to F W Boreham for some of these ideas)….

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