John Singleton Copley, American
(WRITING) “On Second Thought, Scratch That, Revere. Make it ‘One If By Land, Two If By Sea, Three If By Drone,'” ca. 1775-79
Oil on canvas
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Info about this artist pointed to by my comment and reply at another blog entry.
/// Copley painted him, Gilbert DeBlois,
a rich merchant. (Not noble— bourgeois.)
They’d, in Boston, been neighbors.
Now, in London, John labors
to portray the friend Gilbert he saw.
/// Both these men backed the loyalist side,
and had never their King’s rule denied.
When the Yankees revolted,
back to London they bolted.
Chose their fellow Brits in that divide.
/// Years before, an event would occur,
which some called “the Boston Massacre.”
It incited a furor.
DeBlois served as a juror.
With John Adams’ defense he’d concur.
/// British soldiers, for murder, were tried.
They’d fired into a crowd; five had died.
“But they had been provoked,”
Adams claimed, and evoked
fears of violent slaves he decried.
/// Meanwhile, Copley, too, had a strong link
to a deed which brought war to the brink.
‘Twas his wife’s father’s tea
that got thrown in the sea.
“Boston Tea Party” left none to drink.