A tidy four-line contrast between studious Bobby Snooks and naughty Jack Spry, who comes off worst with a black eye and a plaster on his nose. It reads like a playground moral told in miniature.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
Little Bobby Snooks was fond of his books,
And loved by his usher and master;
But naughty Jack Spry, he got a black eye,
And carries his nose in a plaster.
About this rhyme
A short moral rhyme, the sort meant to nudge behaviour rather than tell a real story. Bobby Snooks loves his books and is loved for it; naughty Jack Spry gets a black eye and a plaster on his nose. The contrast is the whole point, so it reads well said as two halves, one warm, one wincing.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition