Dirty Jim

Jane Taylor 1783 (London) – 1824



THERE was one little Jim,
'Tis reported of him,
And must be to his lasting disgrace,
That he never was seen
With hands at all clean,
Nor yet ever clean was his face. . . .

His friends were much hurt
To see so much dirt,
And often they made him quite clean;
But all was in vain,
He got dirty again,
And not at all fit to be seen.

It gave him no pain
To hear them complain,
Nor his own dirty clothes to survey:
His indolent mind
No pleasure could find
In tidy and wholesome array.

The idle and bad,
Like this little lad,
May love dirty ways, to be sure;
But good boys are seen
To be decent and clean,
Although they are ever so poor.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

38 sec read
211

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCCB DDCEXC EEFGGF HHXCCX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 637
Words 128
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

Jane Taylor

Jane Taylor was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the words to the song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", which is widely known, but it is generally forgotten who wrote it. more…

All Jane Taylor poems | Jane Taylor Books

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