by Coleridge · Cluster: Satire of Society · Epigram · Satire
Abstract
A comic epigram on the filthy stench-ridden town of Cologne, asking what divine power shall now wash the Rhine. Themes: satire, the city, comic grotesque.
Connections
Motifs: City, River Themes & Concepts: Grotesque, Satire of Society Forms & Genres: Epigram, Satire
Testo integrale / Full text
In Köhln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang’d with murderous stones
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
I counted two and seventy stenches,
All well defined, and several stinks! 5
Ye Nymphs that reign o’er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne;
But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine? 10
1828.