...can be found in the sad fact that April 18th is now 21/24ths over in my time zone (Eastern Daylight Time, EDT) and I have neglected to tell you that today is the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride, an event that inspired the 19th-centuy Anerican poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) to write a very famous poem called, what else, "Paul Revere's Ride" which begins:
"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."
The poem went on to tell of the expected British invasion of the American colonies and how Paul Revere on the opposite shore would be, ready to ride and spread the alarm to every Middlesex village and farm, for the country folk to be up and to arm if his friend would climb to the belfry of North Church and signal him via lantern light whether the invasion was by land or by sea, specifically, one if by land and two if by sea.
You ought to read it sometime.
Revere was a silversmith in Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the colonial group The Sons Of Liberty at the beginning of the American Revolution.
Another 19th-century American poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), wrote another poem to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord that took place the following day. The poem, called "Concord Hymn", begins:
"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."
I end this post by telling you that a word that means 250th anniversary is semiquincentennial (literally half-500th).
I will sleep well tonight.
This is probably a date that is very seldom remembered
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right, though it pains me to say it. Lovers of American history and American literature will remember it. I fall in both camps. I will admit to knowing next to nothing about Canadian history. Thank you, Red.
DeleteI knew nothing of this. Hardly surprising, I suppose, being a Brit . It sounds a rollicking good narrative poem.
ReplyDeleteI think you would enjoy it. Longfellow is one of.my favorite American poets. His poems include “Evangeline” (a long poem that begins “This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks” that is about lovers separated during the removal of the French from Axadie (Nova Scotia) to Louisiana after the French and Indian War ended in 1763) and “Song Of Hiawarha” (“By the shores of Gitxhee Gumee, by the shinins Big Sea Water, stood the wigwam of Nolomos,)daughter of the moon, Nokomis”) and “The Village Blacksmith” (“Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands. The smith, a mighty man is he with large and sinewy hands”). He is so very 19th-century, but the , in many ways, so am I. Thank you, Janice.
DeleteAcadie, not Axadie and Nokomis, not Nolomis and shining, not shinins!
DeleteI read an interesting speech given by a person I follow about that historic day. Here's a link if you want to see what she said. She's an historian that is great at explaining our past. Her name is Heather Cox Richardson -
ReplyDeletehttps://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/april-18-2025?r=5fike&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
What a fascinating, detailed, and factually accurate description of that era in and around Boston! I knew about Samuel Dawes but not some of the other participants. Thank you for your valuable contribution, Ellen!
DeleteLongfellow's poem has such a good rhythm that a person can't forget it. Paul Revere was an interesting part of the founding of our country even if he was not the only rider and quietly met with people in pubs instead of screaming in the night.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a fun poem, isn’t it? Especially to say aloud because of the wonderful rhythms that carry you along just like Paul Revere’s horse would. Thank you Emma!
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