For today’s Tea and Poetry post, I decided to combine three of the little tea facts from “365 Things Every Tea Lover Should Know” because they go together:

There are four major tea types–black, oolong, green, and white.
Black tea undergoes the longest process of oxidation.
White tea undergoes the least amount of the oxidation process

To add just a couple more facts that relate (that we learned at the Charleston Tea Plantation): 1) All four types of tea come from the same bush (what makes them different, is the amount of time they undergo the oxidation process); 2) Green tea does not require any oxidation.

Now, for today’s poem, I have chosen a poem by Anne Bradstreet:

THE AUTHOR TO HER BOOK

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam.
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.