This week’s Friday Favorites is a delightful children’s poem that many of you may recognize. Written by Gelett Burgess, it’s a lesson on the importance of good manners and polite behavior.

In 1900, Burgess created a comical series of poems about rude little characters known as “The Goops”. Ever since that time, generations of kids have been entertained, amused, and ultimately inspired to carefully avoid becoming Goops, themselves!

This was read to me many times when I was a child and I knew it by heart early on. Years later, I introduced it to my own kids and it became one of their favorites as well.

It still makes me giggle. 🙂

“The Goops and How to Be Them”
By Gelett Burgess

Table Manners

The Goops they lick their fingers,
And the Goops they lick their knives;
They spill their broth on the tablecloth —
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!
The Goops they talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew;
And that is why I’m glad that I
Am not a Goop — Are you?
The Goops are gluttonous and rude,
They gug and gumble with their food;
They throw their crumbs upon the floor,
And at dessert they tease for more.
They will not eat their soup and bread
but like to gobble sweets, instead,
And this is why I oft decline,
When I am asked to stay and dine!”