Paul Revere’s Ride

January 6, 2021

American Legends

this story comes from American Folklore and Legend by Reader’s Digest…these are not my words, some of you may have read or heard this before, but considering what the US and the world is going through at the moment, I felt it was appropriate.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
On the eighteenth of April in ’75
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers the famous day
…and year [March
He said to his friend, “If the British
By land or sea from the town tonight
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light
One, if by land, and two if by sea
And I on the opposite shore will be
Ready to ride and spread alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm
For the country folk to be up and to arm
Then he said, “Good night” and
with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears
till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet
And the measured tread of the grenadiers
Marching down to their boats on the shore
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread
To the belfry chamber overhead
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall
To the highest window in the wall
When he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the lonely belfry and the dead
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away
Where the river widens to meet the bay
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere
Now he patted his horses side
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth
And turned and tightened his saddle girth
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church
As it rose above the graves on the hill
Lonely and spectral and somber and still
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns
But lingers and gazes, till full on the sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!
A hurry of hoofs in a village street
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by by a steed flying fearless and fleet
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light
The fate of a nation was riding that night
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight
Kindled the land into flame with its heat
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town
He heard the calling of the clock
And the barking of the farmer’s dog
And felt the damp of the river fog
That rises after the sun goes down
It was one by the village clock
When he galloped into Lexington
He saw gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed
In the meeting house windows, blank and bare
Gaze at him with a special glare
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon
It was two by the village clock
when he came to the bridge of Concord town…
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
And who at the bridge would be first to fall
Who that day would be lying dead
Pierced by British musket-ball
You know the rest in the books you read
How the British regulars fired and fled
How the farmers gave them ball for ball
From behind each fence and farmyard wall
Chasing the redcoats down the lane
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road
And only pausing to fire and load
So through the night rode Paul Revere
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm
A cry of defiance and not of fear
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night wind of the Past
Through all our history, to the last
In the hour of darkness and peril and need
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying of hoofbeats of that steed
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Paul Revere wasn’t the only one to ride out that night to warn that the British were coming. William Dawes, also made the ride, and at Lexington Samuel Prescott joined in. Dawes and Revere were arrested near Concord.

hope you have a great day!
thanks for stopping by!!