Barbados Postage Stamps Speaking Volumes - Part V

Barbados postage stamps for you;

Plenty facts stuck with glue;

These sticky little squares do show;

Monarchy you should know;

What rates for the weights they must hold,

On papers new or old?

Postage stamps tell, tell true stories;

Not of Whigs and Tories.

Revenue sent to government

Stamps legal document;

We make love to sticky-paste squares

With kisses, glue adheres.

Queen Victoria days of yore;

Penny Post at the door;

World's first postmark known, who carved it?

Henry Bishop made it.

Who gave us the adhesive stamp?

Was Rowland Hill, the champ?

Barbados postage stamps left clues;

Of kings and queens infuse.

On this half penny stamp of green;

Historical facts seen;

A crown that floats above a head;

What message does it spread? 

In the Victorian era,

He wore no crown never;

A consort he was her husband;

She proposed to this man.

Strong woman would make that occur;

He said yes, yes after;

Acrostics she did; he liked chess;

Both them played with success.

 Queen Victoria on the throne;

Morality enthroned;

To every far flung colony;

Barbados, so tiny;

Growing sugar-cane island’s crop;

And slaves working non-stop;

No wage in pounds, shillings and pence;

Working fields, heat intense.

Cutting sugarcane filled dray-carts,

Feeding mills, black-poor hearts;

Bedchamber crisis in Palace;

Peel resigned from office;

Interesting review on this;

This postage stamp depicts

Britannia, Roman goddess,

Postage face does impress.

What are the images you see?

Neptune god of the sea;

Which Britannia personified;

And Romans canonized.

Female personification
Britannia's passion
Brave waves did splash over England
Britain the great island;

Like Neptune she holds a trident;

Three prongs so evident;

Neptune rides waves with seahorses

Well; Britannia does. 

For crying out loud hear this thing;

Barbados she acting

Like she is, Great Britain's England;

Called self "Little England".

Barbados stamps from the outset;

Mirrored England's stamp set;

Post photos alike during the

Victorian era.

Look at postage stamp one farthing;

Gives credence and backing;

Much more is on this postage plate;

So let's reiterate;

Barbados’ story of money,

Few words stated mintly;

Three and a half centuries ago,

Crown's grip on it did show.

Pounds shillings and pence, changeable;

British money table;

Four farthings, one penny it is;

Twelve pence one shilling, Chris.

Imagery on the stamps does say;

Victoria holds sway;

Eighteen thirty-seven young queen;

On the throne at eighteen.

How much those two pees worth today?

A reckoning would say

In Barbados money, six cents;

Inflation dents the pence.

Imperialist's grip on Bimshire

Postage stamps, front and rear;

Dubbed Barbados Britannia

Bags mail with carrier.

Britannia has many themes:

Sea, land, air, and dog scenes

Celebrations, and so much more;

Seen on each stamp photo.

  

Look at Britannia below,

And see how those themes glow;

In this postage stamp gallery;

Compiled for you gladly.

Did the Bajan Britannia

Suffer asthenia?

No, got too much power to stir

The colonial air;

Feeding the lungs of royalty,

And their entrenched army,

The largest Empire on earth;

With glory and self-worth.

Two centuries these British knaves;

Britannia ruled the waves;

Politics play on sticky squares;

Land owners billionaires;

Hindsight sees the bad and the good;

Sherwood hid Robin Hood;

Empire and George VI would die;

His daughter is not shy.

In the year nineteen sixty-six,

Elizabeth did fix

Imperial wrongs, she undressed;

Her Commonwealth cleaned mess;

Bajan Britannia in the dark;

Independence stamps spark;

Britain no longer holds this rock;

Forty-five years ticktock.

With the texture of an Afro,

The rock sat in Barrow;

Proudly wrapped in Broken Trident;

Union Jack silent.

A bold shift in Bajan postage;

The royal head abridge;

When Queen Elizabeth gave back,

With great poise, and brave tact. 

This rock, her ancestors sliced up

Lapping royal tea-cup;

In the year sixteen twenty five;

Human rights ere deprive;

More than three hundred years preserved;

Before new Queen observed;

Her reign brings to Bajans new hope,

And a new skipping rope.

Each postage stamp bears Bajan craft;

Drives postal photograph;

With themes, and scenes of our land;

Sir Garry from Bayland;

Cricketer from Police Sports Club;

Queen Elizabeth dubbed;

Sir Garfield Sobers on the field;

Greatest all-rounder kneeled.

Bajan's living hero knighted;

Captaincy accepted;

Sir Frank Worrell ere his mentor;

At the wicket we saw;

He pleased crowds growing round the ground

On him, flowing around;

Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers;

Collie’s death he ponders...

Traumatic time indeed for him;

Drinking tears kept him slim;

Hits six sixes in one over;

Pleasing crowds rolled-over.

Six successive balls in cricket,

From powerful wicket;

See him on postage Sir Gary

Hones cricket skillfully.

Pause we must on October nine;

This thought floods brain of mine

On postal anniversary;

Postage fraternity. 

Eighteen hundred and sixty four,

This I recall and more;

The arrival of World Post Day

Mail stubs are here to stay.

Reflect we must on UPU;

Headquarters for mail crew

Of the Universal Postal;

A problem-solving hull.

Union taken for granted,

And benefits charted;

The UPU in zonal ways;

Hugs Bajan postal trays.

With pride and appreciation;

We in this small nation;

Celebrate World Post Day with hearts

In Bern's postal ramparts;

Such Swiss' confidence they instill

In our postal mill;

Impacting all living beings;

When Nations Seek postings.

Stuck on historic road’s outpost;

With alphabetic host;

Forty-eight quatrains count and score

Verses one eighty-four.

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