In Act III, Scene III of Death’s Jest-Book, or The Fool’s Tragedy by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1829), Isbrand asks an important question:
What is the lobster’s tune when he is boiled?
Alas, he does not answer it, but goes on to sing a song about an unborn ghost, a Nile crocodile, and a “little, gruntless, fairy hog”. This is all very well, but I still want to know about the lobster’s tune. Can any reader point me in the right direction? Are there any contemporary cover versions?
Lobster’s tune
blunts stereo,
unsettles orb.
Bosun’s letter
buttons reels,
blots tenures.
Treble’s snout:
bluest tenors,
blest tonsure.
Turtles’ bones
lobes entrust:
subtler notes.
Nurse’s bottle,
bluntest sore –
Brunette loss.
Trouble’s nest
unbolts trees:
tubers stolen.
Lone buttress
truest Nobles …
butter lesson.