Dirty Father Thames

Given this poem in my Victorian Literature class.We were discussing Dickens, and I realised

that wow, he's GREAT!

Not that I didn't notice that he was great, but I just found his characters

were too gruesome, and the stories were too angsty for my own taste (Chicklit die-hard fans,

here, readers! :P).

This poem was published in Punch , a magazine of humour and satire. You

could check their site here if you'd like to know more :).


DIRTY FATHER THAMES


Filthy river, filthy river,


Foul from London to the Nore,


What art thou but one vast gutter,One tremendous common shore?


All beside thy sludgy waters,


All beside thy reeking ooze,


Christian folks inhale mephitis,


Which thy bubbly bosom brews.


All her foul abominations


Into thee the City throws;



These pollutions, ever churning,


To and fro thy current flows.


And from thee is brew'd our porter -


Thee, thou guilty, puddle, sink!


Thou, vile cesspool, art the liquour


Whence is made the beer we drink!


Thou, too, hast a Conservator,


He who fills the civic chair;


Well does he conserve thee, truly,


Does not, my good LORD MAYOR?


Punch, Jul.-Dec. 1848, The Victorian Dictionary, compiled by Lee Jackson