III
Suppose you try a different tack,
And on the square you flash your flag?
At penny-a-lining make your whack,
Or with the mummers mug and gag?
For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag
At any graft, no matter what!
Your merry goblins soon stravag:
Booze and the blowens cop the lor.
The Moral.
It's up-the-spout and Charley-Wag
With wipes and tickers and what not!
Until the squeezer nips your scrag,
Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
[1: See Notes for translation]
CULTURE IN THE SLUMS [1887]
[By WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY: "Inscribed to an intense poet">[.
I. Rondeau.