The River Houses

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-paul-revere 😊

This is our special American Revolution week in the River Houses, and that means we have an extra homeschool poem-of-the-week! 😊 On Wednesday we read Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” and today we have Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” These have been two of the most popular American poems for generations, and every smart homeschooler should know them.

“Paul Revere’s Ride” is about this very night, the night before the 19th of April. Here’s a fine dramatic reading of the poem by a voice you may recognize: Sean Astin, the actor who played Samwise “Sam” Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings movies.

And here’s the text with its galloping gait, addressed directly to your students — listen, my children, and you shall hear:

Paul Revere’s Ride 🏇

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
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 the 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,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

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,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, —
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
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 horse’s side,
Now 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 sombre 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 his 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 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.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock,
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
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 the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral 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 in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the red-coats 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 forevermore!
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 hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Longfellow had a wonderful sense of the dramatic, and it’s easy to see why this poem has been so popular for generations. It’s geographically very specific, and all the places named are real places. Paul Revere was in fact one of a whole network of alarm riders that night who carried word of the British march out of the city in all directions — he was the most prominent figure and quite suitable as a central subject, but he was not alone.

Longfellow takes liberties with the details in the sequence of events — it’s an imaginative work of literature, not an academic history. In particular, Revere himself didn’t make it all the way to Concord that night, although other riders did. But if Longfellow’s dramatic telling inspires people to learn more of the historical facts, it has served its purpose well.

Share “Paul Revere’s Ride” this April with your students — you’ll be glad you did!

What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ The fate of a nation was riding that night: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 😊

❡ Explore more: For a quick review of American Revolution, turn to page 298 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books).

❡ Explore more: The Poetry Foundation’s website includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Longfellow) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers.

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-concord-hymn 😊

The American Revolution began on the 19th of April in 1775 when local militiamen in the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, offered forcible resistance to a British attempt to seize colonial stores of arms and ammunition. By the end of that day, 49 Americans and 73 British soldiers had been killed, and a war had begun.

Why not memorize this week, with your homeschool students, the famous opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” which is our homeschool poem-of-the-week every year for this third week of April. It was written for and first read (sung, actually) at the town of Concord’s Independence Day celebration in 1837 when the first battle monument was dedicated at Concord’s North Bridge, and it describes quite precisely the geographical setting of that day:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
 Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
 And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
 Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
 Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
 We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
 When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
 To die, or leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
 The shaft we raise to them and thee.

When you first approach a new poem or look more carefully at an old and familiar poem, encourage your students to look at structure as well as meaning. If you count the syllables, you’ll find that “Concord Hymn” is indeed written in one of the standard hymn meters: “long meter” or “eights-and-eights.” Each line has exactly eight syllables, and the rhyme scheme follows a simple ABAB pattern, which makes the poem easy to recite and remember.

Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” is one of the most famous of all American history poems, and it has been studied in schools and beloved by Americans of all ages for generations. Be sure to make it part of your students’ store of literary knowledge.

What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ The shot heard round the world: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life.

❡ Explore more: For a quick review of the beginning of the American Revolution, turn to page 289 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books).

❡ Explore more: The Poetry Foundation’s website includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Ralph Waldo Emerson) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers.

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us as we visit forty-eight of our favorite friends. 😊