Analysis of 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.


Scheme Ababacxc Adbdxcac aefefcac
Poetic Form
Metre 101101 10101 1010101 111 11101 11101 11110101 0111 101101 11101 11011111 011111 11010101 110101 01011101 1111 101101 10101 11011 010101 11110101 010111 11111101 1111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 621
Words 125
Sentences 10
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 153
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
101

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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