Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves

William Ernest Henley 1849 (Gloucester) – 1903 (Woking)



"Tout aux tavernes et aux filles."
  Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack?
    Or fake the broads? or fig a nag?
  Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack?
    Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag?
    Suppose you duff? or nose and lag?
  Or get the straight, and land your pot?
    How do you melt the multy swag?
  Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
  Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack;
   Or moskeneer, or flash the drag;
 Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack;
   Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag;
   Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag;
 Rattle the tats, or mark the spot;
   You can not bank a single stag;
  Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
 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 lot.
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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

1:00 min read
112

Quick analysis:

Scheme xababbcaCababbcbCababbxaCx bcaC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,060
Words 203
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 26, 4

William Ernest Henley

William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus". more…

All William Ernest Henley poems | William Ernest Henley Books

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