Aour Blockade.


WHAT d'ye think ov aour blockade naow, old feller?
Don't it make yure hed feel kind o'meller—
Soft, I meen—when yu reed
Of cute Jonathan's deed?
Took yure ship in, es the widder “took” old Weller!
We hev warned yu thet trubble was a brewin
Fur fokes thet wood du es yu was duin—
That thare's menny a slip
Twixt the port and the ship—
But yu wood kum aout tu far, tu yure reuin!
I swanny it's the best joke ov the seeson!
Though yu mite hev expected it, in reeson.
Yu hev shown plain enuff
Yu aint quite “up tu snuff”—
Takes a smarter chap then yu tu thrive on treeson!
Aour blockade is made ov paper, is't? du tell!
Guess yu've bin made the “wictim ov a sell!”
Jest keep on es yu've begun,
And aour sailors will hev fun.
Prises Johnny Bull hes furnished suit 'em well.

Title:Aour Blockade.

Author:Charity Grimes

Publication:Harper’s Volume

Published in:

Date:February 28th 1863

Keywords:politics, war

Commentary

This poem adopts a cod-Dickensian British idiolect to address the issue of the failure of a British built and owned ‘gunrunner’ steamship, the ‘Princess Royal’, from making its destination for trade with the Confederacy. In January 1863 the ship was run aground by the Union Navy. The poem alleges that amongst the investors in the operation was a British MP who had argued against the blockade in 1862, and celebrates the fact that this incident proves the efficiency of the American government’s blockade, which of course included cotton exports. The ‘Princess Royal’ was appropriated by the American government and subsequently re-named ‘The Sherman’, after the Union General, and eventually sank in 1874. – SR