Polly Dibbs

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)



Mrs Dibbs - Polly Dibbs,
  Standing at a tub,
Washing other people's clothes -
  Rub-Rub-Rub.
Poor, old, skinny arms
  White with soapy foam -
At night she takes her shabby hat
  And goes off home.

Mrs Dibbs - Polly Dibbs -
  Is not very rich.
She goes abroad all day to scrub,
  And home at night to stitch.
She wears her shabby hat awry,
  Perched on a silly comb;
And people laugh at Polly Dibbs
  As she goes home.

Mrs Dibbs - Mother Dibbs -
  Growing very old,
Says, "it's a hard world!"
  And sniffs and drats the cold.
She says it is a cruel world,
  A weary world to roam.
But God will smile on Polly Dibbs
  When she goes Home.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
101

Quick analysis:

Scheme Ababacxc Adbdxcac aefefcac
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 621
Words 125
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", published in the early 20th century. Though Dennis's work is less well known today, his 1915 publication of The Sentimental Bloke sold 65,000 copies in its first year, and by 1917 he was the most prosperous poet in Australian history. Together with Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, both of whom he had collaborated with, he is often considered among Australia's three most famous poets. While attributed to Lawson by 1911, Dennis later claimed he himself was the 'laureate of the larrikin'. When he died at the age of 61, the Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons suggested he was destined to be remembered as the 'Australian Robert Burns'. more…

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