The Full Text of “The Song of the Shirt”
1With fingers weary and worn,
2With eyelids heavy and red,
3A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
4Plying her needle and thread—
5Stitch! stitch! stitch!
6In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
7And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
8She sang the "Song of the Shirt."
9"Work! work! work!
10While the cock is crowing aloof!
11And work—work—work,
12Till the stars shine through the roof!
13It's O! to be a slave
14Along with the barbarous Turk,
15Where woman has never a soul to save,
16If this is Christian work!
17"Work—work—work
18Till the brain begins to swim;
19Work—work—work
20Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
21Seam, and gusset, and band,
22Band, and gusset, and seam,
23Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
24And sew them on in a dream!
25"O, Men, with Sisters dear!
26O, Men! with Mothers and Wives!
27It is not linen you're wearing out,
28But human creatures' lives!
29Stitch—stitch—stitch,
30In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
31Sewing at once with a double thread,
32A Shroud as well as a Shirt.
33"But why do I talk of Death?
34That Phantom of grisly bone,
35I hardly fear its terrible shape,
36It seems so like my own—
37It seems so like my own,
38Because of the fasts I keep;
39Oh! God! that bread should be so dear,
40And flesh and blood so cheap!
41"Work—work—work!
42My Labour never flags;
43And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
44A crust of bread—and rags.
45That shatter'd roof—and this naked floor—
46A table—a broken chair—
47And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
48For sometimes falling there!
49"Work—work—work!
50From weary chime to chime,
51Work—work—work!
52As prisoners work for crime!
53Band, and gusset, and seam,
54Seam, and gusset, and band,
55Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumb'd,
56As well as the weary hand.
57"Work—work—work,
58In the dull December light,
59And work—work—work,
60When the weather is warm and bright—
61While underneath the eaves
62The brooding swallows cling
63As if to show me their sunny backs
64And twit me with the spring.
65"O! but to breathe the breath
66Of the cowslip and primrose sweet—
67With the sky above my head,
68And the grass beneath my feet
69For only one short hour
70To feel as I used to feel,
71Before I knew the woes of want
72And the walk that costs a meal!
73"O! but for one short hour!
74A respite however brief!
75No blessed leisure for Love or Hope,
76But only time for Grief!
77A little weeping would ease my heart,
78But in their briny bed
79My tears must stop, for every drop
80Hinders needle and thread!"
81With fingers weary and worn,
82With eyelids heavy and red,
83A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
84Plying her needle and thread—
85Stitch! stitch! stitch!
86In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
87And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,—
88Would that its tone could reach the Rich!—
89She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"
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“The Song of the Shirt” Introduction
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Thomas Hood wrote "The Song of the Shirt" in 1843, in honor of a widow and seamstress named Mrs. Biddell. The poem's speaker listens as a poor seamstress sings to herself as she works. Through this song, Hood exposes the inhumane conditions of England's working poor, showing how poverty forces workers into extreme and intolerable conditions. The speaker seems to believe that if others could hear the "Song of the Shirt," they might do something to help these impoverished workers—and in fact, Hood's poem did help raise awareness around the struggles of the working class.
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“The Song of the Shirt” Summary
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A woman with tired, worn-out fingers and drooping, bloodshot eyes, wearing unflattering and tattered clothes, sat sewing. She stitched, and stitched! She was poor and hungry and dirty, and she sang sadly to herself, singing the "Song of the Shirt."
"I'm always working! When the roosters crow, I'm working, and I'm still working when night falls. Oh! I'm a slave, just like the uncivilized Turks. They might call this 'Christian' work, but I don't even have a soul worth saving.
"I'm always working, until I can't think straight, and I can hardly see anything. All I can see are the materials I'm sewing together, and when I fall asleep, I keep on sewing while I dream.
"Men, you have sisters, mothers, and wives! You are wearing us out when you make us stitch together these clothes. We are poor, and hungry, and dirty, sewing our way straight to death.
"Death doesn't scare me, though, because I look just like its ghostly, boney form. I hardly eat—bread is so hard to come by, and my labor brings in hardly any money.
"I'm always working! I can't stop laboring, but what do I gain? All I have are a straw bed, some crusty bread, and tattered clothes. My roof is broken, and my floor is bare. I've got a table, a broken chair, and a wall so bare that I'm grateful when my shadow falls on it.
"I'm always working! The clock chimes wearily, and I work like prisoners paying for their crimes. All I can see are the materials I'm sewing together, and my heart and mind feel as sick and numb as my hand.
"I'm always working, throughout the dark winter and into the warm, sunny spring. Birds hang on the roof and taunt me with their happy song.
"Oh! All I want is to smell sweet flowers and feel the sky above me, the grass under my feet. I just want one hour of that happiness, which I used to know before I became poor and had to work so hard for food.
"Oh! I only want one hour of rest. I don't even need to experience pleasure—I just want time to cry. To cry would be a relief, but I can't cry while working because tears will interfere with my work."
A woman with tired, worn-out fingers and drooping, bloodshot eyes, wearing unflattering and tattered clothes, sat sewing. She stitched, and stitched! She was poor and hungry and dirty, and she sang sadly to herself—if only the rich could hear!—this "Song of the Shirt."
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“The Song of the Shirt” Themes
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Poverty and Labor in Victorian England
“The Song of the Shirt” spotlights the experiences of Victorian England’s working poor. The subject of the poem is a seamstress who works ceaselessly in inhumane, even torturous conditions simply to get by. This unending labor fills her with deep despair and hopelessness, even as “the Rich” remain oblivious to these struggles of the working class. Through the woman’s song, the poem seeks to expose the burdens of poverty and the dehumanizing labor conditions faced by poor workers in 19th-century England.
The seamstress’s song emphasizes the repetitive, monotonous, and utterly exhausting nature of her labor. She complains that she works from morning, when the rooster crows, to night, when the stars shine, and that all day she can't take even "one short hour" of rest. She doesn't even have time to cry, she sings, because crying will slow her work. Ultimately, the seamstress works so long that she falls asleep over the buttons she sews, only to then keep on working “in a dream.”
All this work takes an immense physical and mental toll on the seamstress. Her fingers are “weary and worn” while her “eyelids [are] heavy and red.” She feels like the “brooding swallows” outside taunt her, singing that they “twit me with the spring”—mocking her while she’s trapped inside her “blank” and unpleasant room. Her heart and mind, meanwhile, have grown “sick” and numb. Working to survive is, ironically, draining the seamstress of her very life: she says that she’s “Sewing at once, with a double thread, / A Shroud as well as a Shirt”—in other words, preparing for her own funeral—and beginning to look like the “terrible shape” of death itself.
The seamstress's misery, the poem implies, is the product of a society that values human life less than material goods—that treats “flesh and blood” as “cheap.” Those who buy her clothes pay no heed to the fact that it’s “not linen” they’re “wearing out” but rather “human creatures’ lives”—in other words, they don’t know or care that they’re benefitting from the torturous, endless labor of people in poverty. The seamstress even compares herself to a “slave,” indicating that she feels like society treats her as sub-human. Instead, she is a “creature” or a “prisoner” without “a soul to save.”
By recording the seamstress’s song, the speaker of “The Song of the Shirt” thus exposes how miserable, dirty, and inhumane life can be for the working poor. Writing at the end, “Would that its tone could reach the Rich,” the speaker suggests that if others only listened to and cared about the seamstress, they might realize that people like her need—and indeed deserve—relief from the torments of poverty.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Gender Inequality in Victorian England
The poor seamstress at the heart of “The Song of the Shirt” believes that her life is all the more difficult because she is a woman struggling to provide for herself in a society that devalues women's labor. While the poem predominantly focuses on the burdens of poverty in general, Hood also suggests that those burdens are distributed unequally; Victorian society placed a premium on traditional femininity (especially physical beauty, grace, and obedience) and granted women fewer opportunities to become independent or self-sufficient—making it all the more difficult for those women who had to work to support themselves and their families.
The subject of the poem toils over the kind of work (sewing clothing by hand) that many poverty-stricken women had to perform to survive in the 19th century. Hood in fact wrote the poem in honor of a widow named Mrs. Biddell, who sewed clothes and pawned the clothing she made in order to feed her starving children. The seamstress in the poem likewise constantly works her “needle and thread,” obsessing over “seam, and gusset, and band,” because this is the only way she can support herself. The seamstress doesn’t mention if she has children, but she does blame men for burdening her and other women with this tedious work, crying, “O, men, with sisters dear! / O, men, with mothers and wives!” She suggests that while women must work to feed their families, men often don’t realize—or care—how much their wives and sisters suffer as a result of these burdens.
Because she works so hard, slaving over needle and thread, the seamstress seems to lose what makes her a woman. In the first and last stanzas, the speaker describes the seamstress as a “woman” in “unwomanly rags.” The seamstress obviously can’t take care of her physical appearance: she can hardly feed herself, let alone try to look “womanly.” The seamstress also complains that her work makes her feel like less than a woman—indeed, less than a human being. She claims that “human creatures’ lives” get worn out by these horrible, impoverished conditions. Lack of food and rest make the seamstress look like death itself, a “phantom of grisly bone.” Evidently, the physical toll of the seamstress’s work is almost more than she can endure.
Ultimately, “The Song of the Shirt” demonstrates that very poor women must bear such extreme burdens that they cease to really be women at all (in a Victorian sense of the word, that is), becoming instead “benumbed” and “weary” slaves.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Song of the Shirt”
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Lines 1-8
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread—
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt."In the first stanza, the speaker introduces the subject of the poem: a seamstress who is evidently very poor and distressed. The speaker will relay the seamstress's song throughout the rest of the poem, so this opening stanza provides the first (and really the only) chance to see her from an observer's perspective. The specific imagery in this stanza sets the scene, allowing the reader to envision the woman as she sings her "Song of the Shirt."
Clearly, the woman is exhausted and unhappy. The speaker describes how her fingers are "weary and worn," her "eyelids heavy and red," and she wears "unwomanly rags"—tattered, unattractive clothes. And not only does her body show signs of physical distress, but the speaker notes that she works "In poverty, hunger, and dirt" and that her voice is "dolorous," or deeply sad.
The repetitive sounds of the stanza emphasize the woman's dismal state. Note, for example, the alliteration of "weary and worn" and the assonance of "heavy and red," sonic devices that draw readers' attention to the seamstress's exhaustion. The polyptoton of "woman" and "unwomanly," meanwhile, illustrates how the woman's labor has robbed her of gentleness and beauty. And the quick epizeuxis of "Stitch! stitch! stitch!" evokes the endless, monotonous nature of the seamstress's labor.
The poem's rhyme scheme also reflects the fact that this is a "song." This opening stanza of eight lines can be broken down into two quatrains, or four-line stanzas, that follow the rhyme schemes ABCB DEDE.
While the poem's meter varies quite a bit, most of the feet here are iambs (da-DUMs) or anapests (da-da-DUMs) (with occasional trochees, DUM-das, thrown in). Notice the repetitive, bouncy rhythm of lines 1-4, for example:
With fin- | gers wea- | ry and worn,
With eye- | lids hea- | vy and red,
A wo- | man sat, | in unwo- | manly rags,
Plying | her need- | le and thread—The poem's meter works with the alternating rhyme pattern to lend music and rhythm to the speaker's tale.
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Lines 9-16
"Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof!
And work—work—work,
Till the stars shine through the roof!
It's O! to be a slave
Along with the barbarous Turk,
Where woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work!
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Lines 17-24
"Work—work—work
Till the brain begins to swim;
Work—work—work
Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
Seam, and gusset, and band,
Band, and gusset, and seam,
Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
And sew them on in a dream! -
Lines 25-32
"O, Men, with Sisters dear!
O, Men! with Mothers and Wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out,
But human creatures' lives!
Stitch—stitch—stitch,
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
Sewing at once with a double thread,
A Shroud as well as a Shirt. -
Lines 33-40
"But why do I talk of Death?
That Phantom of grisly bone,
I hardly fear its terrible shape,
It seems so like my own—
It seems so like my own,
Because of the fasts I keep;
Oh! God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap! -
Lines 41-48
"Work—work—work!
My Labour never flags;
And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
A crust of bread—and rags.
That shatter'd roof—and this naked floor—
A table—a broken chair—
And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
For sometimes falling there! -
Lines 49-56
"Work—work—work!
From weary chime to chime,
Work—work—work!
As prisoners work for crime!
Band, and gusset, and seam,
Seam, and gusset, and band,
Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumb'd,
As well as the weary hand. -
Lines 57-64
"Work—work—work,
In the dull December light,
And work—work—work,
When the weather is warm and bright—
While underneath the eaves
The brooding swallows cling
As if to show me their sunny backs
And twit me with the spring. -
Lines 65-72
"O! but to breathe the breath
Of the cowslip and primrose sweet—
With the sky above my head,
And the grass beneath my feet
For only one short hour
To feel as I used to feel,
Before I knew the woes of want
And the walk that costs a meal! -
Lines 73-80
"O! but for one short hour!
A respite however brief!
No blessed leisure for Love or Hope,
But only time for Grief!
A little weeping would ease my heart,
But in their briny bed
My tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders needle and thread!" -
Lines 81-89
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread—
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,—
Would that its tone could reach the Rich!—
She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"
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“The Song of the Shirt” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
Throughout "The Song of the Shirt," both the speaker and the seamstress use specific imagery to portray the horrible living conditions of the working poor.
In the opening stanza, for example, the speaker sets the scene right away by describing the seamstress's fingers as "weary and worn" and her "eyelids heavy and red"—signs of physical distress caused by her endless labor. The seamstress herself uses imagery later in the poem to convey the miserable state of the room where she works. She describes the "shatter'd roof" and "naked floor" of her room, as well as a "blank" wall, a table, and a "broken chair." Evidently, her room is sparsely furnished, uncomfortable, and unpleasant—especially in contrast with the "warm and bright" spring weather the seamstress imagines later in her song.
Finally, the final stanza repeats the same image from the opening stanza, reiterating that the seamstress is physically deteriorating, bearing the burden of her constant and tiresome work. With her "weary" body and "unwomanly rags," she represents the picture of poverty and hunger in Victorian England: an image that might, the speaker hopes, prompt others to do something to help, particularly if they hear her moving and terrible song.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
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Epizeuxis
Unlock all 263 words of this analysis of Epizeuxis in “The Song of the Shirt,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
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Chiasmus
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Repetition
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Apostrophe
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Metaphor
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Personification
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Rhetorical Question
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“The Song of the Shirt” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Unwomanly
- Plying
- Dolorous
- Cock
- Aloof
- Barbarous Turk
- Gusset
- Shroud
- Phantom
- Grisly
- Flags
- Benumbed
- Eaves
- Brooding
- Swallows
- Cowslip and primrose
- Woes
- Respite
- Leisure
- Briny bed
- Hinders
Unwomanly-
Not showing qualities usually associated with women. The speaker uses the adjective "unwomanly" to suggest that the seamstress's clothes are unfeminine, in a Victorian sense, and poor.
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Song of the Shirt”
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Form
"The Song of the Shirt" features 11 stanzas, the first 10 of which are eight lines long (making them octaves). The final stanza then has nine lines.
After the opening introduction, the nine central stanzas make up the seamstress's song. Each of these stanzas appears as a quotation from the seamstress. Each of these stanzas can be also be thought of as consisting of two quatrains (four-line stanzas), which each follow an ABCB (and sometimes ABAB) rhyme scheme. Many of the seamstress's stanzas begin with the same refrain ("Work—work—work"), which lends a consistent, even musical feeling to her song.
In contrast to these nine central stanzas, the first and last stanzas come from the main speaker of the poem who introduces the seamstress and transcribes her song. Despite the different speaker, however, these stanzas match the form of the seamstress's song, also including eight lines each. These two stanzas provide a frame for the "Song of the Shirt," as they are identical except for the addition of one extra line in the final stanza. This additional line, "Would that its tone could reach the Rich!" stands out, emphasizing the speaker's plea for more fortunate people to hear the seamstress's song and understand her struggles.
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Meter
While "The Song of the Shirt" feels rhythmic at times, it has no consistent meter. Some lines, like line 7, have up to 10 syllables, while the poem's refrain—"Work! work! work!"—has only three.
That said, the poem's frequent use of parallelism and repetition creates a somewhat predictable, even monotonous rhythm, which emulates the seamstress's monotonous and repetitive work.
Take the opening stanza: lines 1-3 each open with two iambs (poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed, da-DUM rhythm) followed by anapests (feet with a da-da-DUM rhythm); line 4 then opens with a trochee (DUM-da) before moving back into that iamb-anapest pattern:
With fin- | gers wea- | ry and worn,
With eye- | lids hea- | vy and red,
A wo- | man sat, | in unwo- | manly rags,
Plying | her need- | le and thread—Much of the poem features a similar mixture of iambs and anapests, and the third and seventh lines of almost every stanza are also longer than the rest (usually having 10 syllables total). This pattern, in turn, gets punctuated by those stark "Stitch! stitch! stitch!" and "Work! work! work!" refrains. Here's the rest of stanza 1, which continues to feature iambs and anapests:
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In po- | verty, hun- | ger, and dirt,
And still | with a voice | of do- | lorous pitch
She sang | the "Song | of the Shirt."As a result, the poem feels metered and musical at times. The poem's refrains then disrupt the beat of the seamstress's song to reflect the broken and uncertain nature of her experiences and surroundings.
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Rhyme Scheme
The first stanza of "The Song of the Shirt" has the following rhyme scheme:
ABCBDEDE
While a few other stanzas throughout the poem have the same pattern, there is some variation. Many stanzas don't have a rhyme between their fifth and seventh lines (the D lines above), making the second chunk of the pattern DEFE. This alternative pattern can be seen in stanza 4, for example:
ABCBDEFE
Other stanzas also include additional identical rhyme pairs thanks to the seamstress's frequent repetitions, such as when she repeats "Work—work—work" in lines 17 and 19 (technically making this particular stanza's opening rhyme scheme ABAB). Similarly, the repetition of "It seems so like my own" creates an extra rhyme in stanza 5. Finally, the poem deviates from its rhyme scheme in the last stanza, as the speaker adds an extra line—"Would that its tone could reach the Rich!"—which creates an extra rhyming pair in lines 87 and 88.
In general, this rhyme scheme makes the poem feel musical, as if the seamstress really is singing a song. Rhyme gives the poem consistency: the opening and closing stanzas share a similar tone to the seamstress's song, and the seamstress's song itself is repetitive. This steady, rhythmic song reflects the repetitive nature of the seamstress's work. Perhaps the author also wants readers to imagine that the seamstress moves her hands in time to the rhythm of her song.
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“The Song of the Shirt” Speaker
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"The Song of the Shirt" essentially has two speakers:
- The first speaker only appears in the first and last stanzas. This speaker introduces the seamstress, describing her physical appearance and providing a framework for her "Song of the Shirt."
- The second speaker is the seamstress herself, who "sings" her song throughout the central stanzas of the poem.
Although the poem presents these speakers as two separate characters, they share a similar voice and tone, use the same rhyme scheme and stanza structure, and even repeat certain phrases, like the refrain, "Stitch! stitch! stitch!" These similarities call attention to the fact that the poem is, in fact, a work of fiction, as both speakers are clearly the creation of one author.
While the first speaker remains anonymous, the seamstress's identity is more relevant to the content of the poem. Hood wrote the poem in honor of a widow and seamstress named Mrs. Biddell, but there's no evidence to show that the seamstress who sings the "Song of the Shirt" is meant to represent Mrs. Biddell. Rather, the seamstress more generally represents the poor working class in Victorian England, and poor working women in particular.
Through her song, the seamstress reveals that she works constantly, unhappily, and that she feels like a "prisoner" whose fatigue and hunger bring her close to death. She also reveals that at one point in her life, she was able to feel the pleasures of rest and relaxation: poverty struck only recently, perhaps.
By singing her song, the seamstress doesn't seem to expect anyone to hear her complaints or help her escape her miserable life. Rather, the seamstress only wants to express her grief, to release her emotions, and maybe to distract herself through music as she works. On the other hand, the first speaker is clearly sympathetic toward the seamstress, wishing that her song would "reach the rich" and perhaps move them to help the poor.
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“The Song of the Shirt” Setting
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"The Song of the Shirt" is set in Victorian England. Originally published in 1843, the poem came at a time when the poor working class in England lived in horrible, often inhumane conditions, and the poem gestures to this broader setting through the seamstress's song. The more immediate setting, however, is the room in which the seamstress works. The seamstress describes this setting in her song: it's an unpleasant room, with a "shatter'd roof" and a "naked floor," furnished only with a "bed of straw," "A table—a broken chair— / And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank / For sometimes falling there!" Although the seamstress's mind wanders to more pleasant settings, such as a meadow with "cowslip and primrose sweet," her body is trapped in this prison-like room, the misery of which only adds to her suffering.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Song of the Shirt”
Literary Context
Thomas Hood published "The Song of the Shirt" in a magazine called Punch in 1843. Punch was established in 1841, and it remained a popular source of humor and satire writings and cartoons through the 20th century.
Though it was originally published anonymously, "The Song of the Shirt" ultimately became one of Hood's most famous works, along with a poem called "The Bridge of Sighs." Like "The Song of the Shirt," "The Bridge of Sighs" touches on themes of poverty and despair. Though Hood was considered a humorous poet for most of his life, he wrote these darker poems when he was on his sickbed; he was unhealthy throughout his life and died at age 45.
Stylistically, "The Song of the Shirt" fits in with Hood's other poetry. His poems including "A Friendly Address," "I Remember, I Remember," and "Ruth" use similar stanza structures and rhyme schemes. Hood also uses a similarly earnest, engaged tone in many of his other works, even as he explores other (often less somber) themes.
Hood's poems about poverty and the working class recall the work of Charles Dickens, whose novels including Oliver Twist and Great Expectations painted a vivid picture of life in early Victorian England. Both Hood and Dickens used their work to call attention to the conditions of the working class, even though Hood himself was not politically radical. "The Song of the Shirt" also inspired other works that explore similar themes. For example, Richard Redgrave’s painting The Sempstress was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1844 accompanied by lines from "The Song of the Shirt." Beatrice Offor's later painting, "It is not the linen you're wearing out, but human creatures' lives," likewise quotes Hood's poem in its title.
Historical Context
Hood wrote "The Song of the Shirt" in honor of a widow and seamstress named Mrs. Biddell. Mrs. Biddell made a living by sewing clothes in her home, using materials she received from her employer. When she became desperate for money to feed her children, Mrs. Biddell pawned the clothing she made and went into debt, causing her to be sent to a workhouse.
Workhouses were essentially labor factories, which became common after the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 aimed to provide better support for England's poor. Instead, what became known as the "new Poor Law" subjected workers to extremely unpleasant conditions; unfortunately, Mrs. Biddell's circumstances probably only worsened when she left her home, though little is known about her fate.
Supposedly, Hood saw an article about Mrs. Biddell in The Times, which inspired him to write "The Song of the Shirt." Upon publication in Punch, the poem was instantly successful. It circulated widely, drawing attention to the conditions of England's working poor, and also inspiring spin-off works of literature and art that further explored the inhumane experiences of the lower classes.
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More “The Song of the Shirt” Resources
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External Resources
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Mrs. Biddell and the Victorian Court — Learn more about the historical context of "The Song of the Shirt," from a website dedicated to Charles Dickens and his society.
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Workhouses and the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 — Discover the legislation that subjected people like Mrs. Biddell, who inspired "The Song of the Shirt," to horrible experiences in Victorian workhouses.
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Punch Magazine — Learn more about the magazine in which Hood originally published "The Song of the Shirt."
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Richard Redgrave's "The Sempstress" — Take a look at a painting inspired by "The Song of the Shirt."
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"The Song of the Shirt" Read Aloud — Listen to a recording of the poem.
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Musical rendition of "The Song of the Shirt" — Hear one artist turn "The Song of the Shirt" into a musical song.
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Biography of Thomas Hood — Read about the poet who wrote "The Song of the Shirt."
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"It is not the linen you're wearing out, But human creatures lives" — This painting by Beatrice Offor borrows a quote from "The Song of the Shirt" in its title.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Thomas Hood
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