"What are you staring at, mariner man Wrinkled as sea-sand and old as the sea?" "Those trains will run over their tails, if they can, Snorting and sporting like porpoises. Flee The burly, the whirligig wheels of the train. As round as the world and as large again, Running half the way over to Babylon, down Through fields of clover to gay Troy town- A-puffing their smoke as grey as the curl On my forehead as wrinkled as sands of the sea!- But what can that matter to you, my girl? (And what can that matter to me?)"
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Authorship:
- by Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), appears in Façade, first published 1922 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by William Walton (1902 - 1983), "Mariner man", from Façade [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Dan Eggleston
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 19
Word count: 98