The Lightning is a yellow Fork 1
From Tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropt
The awful Cutlery
Of mansions never quite disclosed 5
And never quite concealed
The Apparatus of the Dark
To ignorance revealed.
From Tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropt
The awful Cutlery
Of mansions never quite disclosed 5
And never quite concealed
The Apparatus of the Dark
To ignorance revealed.
(F.1140/J.1173)
[1] lightning:: any strong, low-quality alcohol, especially whisky. yellow:: cowardly. Fork:: choice.
[2] in the Sky:: floating, unstable.
[3] inadvertent:: inattentive as drunk.
[4] Cutlery:: the strong alcohol that kills.
[5] mansions:: the mansions in Heaven after death.
[8] ignorance:: the ignorant people that drink the bad alcohol.
There are unclean, new, raw whiskies sold in America by the hangers-on of their large armies, which get the name "Jersey lightning," from the rapidity and certainty with which they will prostrate a man. ─ Report on Cheat Wine, Medical Times and Gazette (1864)
They recommended everything, from "Louisiana Lightning" (whisky) to opium My
friends said I had the "old fashioned jaundice," and must take something. pills. ─ Herald of Health (1863)