Italian - Momus

Wax rammish, white herrings

Awash with yellow derring-do

His countenance as purple as the dawn

So I could pluck a crow, wrapped up in brimming hampers

Betwixt the bark and beamish, in my little craft

I cast the dice and witness more towardsness

The secret place where man might hang a jewel

Your pinches, your pearls, superfluous interlacings

Your flowery jaggings, puffings-up and black within

Where shall you live but hell, amidst the hags and devils

When purple piper knuckles down to trill

Where shall you live but hell, amidst the hags and devils

When purple piper knuckles down to trill

Expenses, apprentices, the skull and all its striplings

The maidenheads of rotten courtesans

A Frenchman, a wrenchman, a slaughterer displeasures him

His countenance as purple as the dawn

Italian, I’ll wager, the son of John Indifferent

The young boys take their pleasure up and down

Where shall you live but hell, amidst the hags and devils

When purple piper knuckles down to trill

Wax rammish, white herrings

Awash with yellow derring-do

His countenance as purple as the dawn

So I could pluck a crow, wrapped up in brimming hampers

Betwixt the bark and beamish, in my little craft

Where shall you live but hell, amidst the hags and devils

When purple piper knuckles down to trill

Where shall you live but hell, amidst the hags and devils

Italian, I’ll wager, within