Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-02-05
4 RALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA
PARTY.
NJ N1vrs WENDELL HOLMES.


No, never such draught was poured
since Hebe served with nectar
The bright Oiympians and their Lord,
Her overland protector
since Father Noah squeezed the grape
And took to such behaving
As would have shamed our grandsire ape
BEFORE the days Of shaving
MOI ne'er was mingled such draught
In palace, hall. or arbor,
IA freemen brewed and tyrants quaded
That night in Boston harbor!
II kept King George so long awake
His poor old brain got added,
II made the nerves of Britain shake,
With seven score millions eaddled;
BEFORE that bitter cup was drained,
Amid the roar Of cannon,
The Western war-cloud's crimson stained
The Thames. the Clyde, the Shannon;
Full many a six-foot grenadier
The flattentd grass had measured,
And many . mother many year
Her searful memories treasured;
Fast spread the tempest's darkening pail,
The mighty realms were troubled,
The storm broke loose, but first of all
The Boston tea pot bubbledl
An evening party--only that,
No formal invitation,
No gold laced coat, no stiff cravat,
No feast IN expectation,
No silk-robed danes, no fddling band,
No flowers. no songs. no dancing
A tribe Of Red men, ak in hand
Behold the guests advaDcingi
How fast the stragglers join the throng,
From stall and workshop gatheredl
The lively barb skips along
And leaves a chin half lathered;
The smith has flung his hammer down
The horseshoe sill is glowing;
The truant tapster at The Crown
Has left beer cask flowing;
The coopers boys have dropped the adze
And trot behind their master;
Up run the larry ship-yard lads
The crowd is hurrying faster
Out from the Millponds purleus gush
The streams OF white-faced millers,
And down their slippery alleys rush
The lusty young Fort Killers:
The rope-walk l0nds Its 'prenticed crew
The tories seize the omen:
(" Az, boysl you'll room have work to do
For England's rebel foemen,
King Hancock Adams, and their gang,
That fire the mob with treason
When these we shoot and those we hang
The town will come to reason"
On--on to where the tea-ships ridel
And nov their ranks are forming
A rush. and mp the Dartmouth's side
The Mohawk band Is swarmingl
See the fierce natives! What a glimpse
OF paint and fur and feather,
As all at once the full-grown imps
Light on the deck togetheri
A scarf the pigtail's secret keeps,
A blanket hides the breeches-
And ont the cured cargo leaps
And overheard it pitches!
o woman, ut 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
All, little dreams the quiet dame
VINO plies with rock and spindle
The patient fax, how great a flame,
Yon little spark shall kinale!
The lurid morning shall reveal
A fire no king can smother
Where British flint and Boston steel
Have FLASHED against each otherl
Old charters shrivel in it's track,
His Worship's Bench has crumbled,
1t climbs and clasps the Union Jack
Its blazoned pomp " humbled,
The flags go down on land and sea
Like corn before the reapers;-
SO blazed the fire that brewed the tea
That Boston served her keepers!
The waves that wrought century's wreck
Have rolled DER WING and tory
The Mohawks On the Dartmouth's deck
Still live IN song and story,
The waters in the Rebel Bay
Have kept the tea-leaf SAVIOR
Our old North -Enders in their spray
Still taste Hyson flavor;
And Freedoms teacup still o'erfiows
With ever fresh libat,ons,
To cheat OF slumber all her foes
And cheer the Weakening nationsi
Atlantic M0ytItIs