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Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

History

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Name: Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)
Author: Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)

O woman, at the evening board,
        So gracious, sweet and purring,
    So happy while the tea is poured,
      So blest while spoons are stirring.
    What martyr can compare with thee?
      The mother, wife, or daughter,--
    That night, instead of best Bohea,
      Condemned to milk and water!

    Ah, little dreams the quiet dame,
      Who plies with rack and spindle,
    The patient flax, how great a flame
      Yon little spark shall kindle!
    The lurid morning shall reveal
      A fire no king can smother,
    When British flint and Boston steel
      Have clashed against each other!
    Old charters shrivel in its track,
      His worship's bench has crumbled,
    It climbs and clasps the Union Jack,--
      Its blazoned pomp is humbled.
    The flags go down on land and sea,
      Like corn before the reapers;
    So burned the fire that brewed the tea
      That Boston served her keepers!

    The waves that wrought a country's wreck
      Have rolled o'er Whig and Tory;
    The Mohawks on the Dartmouth's deck
      Shall live in song and story.
    The waters in the rebel bay
      Have kept the tea-leaf savor;
    Our old North-Enders in their spray
      Still taste a Hyson flavor.
    And Freedom's tea-cup still o'erflows,
      With ever-fresh libations,
    To cheat of slumber all her foes,
      And cheer the wakening nations!"




COMMEMORATIVE VERSES.


FRAGMENT OF A RALLYING SONG OF THE TEA PARTY AT THE GREEN DRAGON.

    Rally Mohawks! bring out your axes,
    And tell King George we'll pay no taxes
                  On his foreign tea;
    His threats are vain, and vain to think
    To force our girls and wives to drink
                  His vile Bohea!
    Then rally boys, and hasten on
    To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.

    Our Warren's there, and bold Revere,
    With hands to do, and words to cheer,
                  For liberty and laws;
    Our country's "braves" and firm defenders
    Shall ne'er be left by true North-Enders
                  Fighting Freedom's cause!
    Then rally boys, and hasten on
    To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.

                    * * *

       *       *       *       *       *




A TEA PARTY BALLAD.

    Just by beauteous Boston lying
      On the gently swelling flood;
    Without Jack or streamers flying,
      Three ill-fated tea-ships rode.

    Just as glorious Sol was setting,
      On the wharf, a numerous crew--
    Sons of Freedom, fear forgetting,
      Suddenly appeared in view.

    Armed with chisel, axe and hammer,--
      Weapons new for warlike deed;
    Towards the herbage-freighted vessels,
      They approached with dauntless speed.

    O'er their heads aloft in mid sky,
      Three bright angel forms were seen;
    This was Hampden,--that was Sidney,
      With fair Liberty between.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)

O woman, at the evening board,
        So gracious, sweet and purring,
    So happy while the tea is poured,
      So blest while spoons are stirring.
    What martyr can compare with thee?
      The mother, wife, or daughter,--
    That night, instead of best Bohea,
      Condemned to milk and water!

    Ah, little dreams the quiet dame,
      Who plies with rack and spindle,
    The patient flax, how great a flame
      Yon little spark shall kindle!
    The lurid morning shall reveal
      A fire no king can smother,
    When British flint and Boston steel
      Have clashed against each other!
    Old charters shrivel in its track,
      His worship's bench has crumbled,
    It climbs and clasps the Union Jack,--
      Its blazoned pomp is humbled.
    The flags go down on land and sea,
      Like corn before the reapers;
    So burned the fire that brewed the tea
      That Boston served her keepers!

    The waves that wrought a country's wreck
      Have rolled o'er Whig and Tory;
    The Mohawks on the Dartmouth's deck
      Shall live in song and story.
    The waters in the rebel bay
      Have kept the tea-leaf savor;
    Our old North-Enders in their spray
      Still taste a Hyson flavor.
    And Freedom's tea-cup still o'erflows,
      With ever-fresh libations,
    To cheat of slumber all her foes,
      And cheer the wakening nations!"




COMMEMORATIVE VERSES.


FRAGMENT OF A RALLYING SONG OF THE TEA PARTY AT THE GREEN DRAGON.

    Rally Mohawks! bring out your axes,
    And tell King George we'll pay no taxes
                  On his foreign tea;
    His threats are vain, and vain to think
    To force our girls and wives to drink
                  His vile Bohea!
    Then rally boys, and hasten on
    To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.

    Our Warren's there, and bold Revere,
    With hands to do, and words to cheer,
                  For liberty and laws;
    Our country's "braves" and firm defenders
    Shall ne'er be left by true North-Enders
                  Fighting Freedom's cause!
    Then rally boys, and hasten on
    To meet our chiefs at the Green Dragon.

                    * * *

       *       *       *       *       *




A TEA PARTY BALLAD.

    Just by beauteous Boston lying
      On the gently swelling flood;
    Without Jack or streamers flying,
      Three ill-fated tea-ships rode.

    Just as glorious Sol was setting,
      On the wharf, a numerous crew--
    Sons of Freedom, fear forgetting,
      Suddenly appeared in view.

    Armed with chisel, axe and hammer,--
      Weapons new for warlike deed;
    Towards the herbage-freighted vessels,
      They approached with dauntless speed.

    O'er their heads aloft in mid sky,
      Three bright angel forms were seen;
    This was Hampden,--that was Sidney,
      With fair Liberty between.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

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