New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-25
PAUL REFEREES RIDE.

"t
eFFlclAL JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS
PAUL REFEREES RIDE.
EY HENRY wADswoKTH LoSGYELLox.
Listen my children. and YOU shall hear
OF the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
on the eighteenth of April in seventy-fve;
Hardly man is now alive
Who remembers the famous day and year.
Hs said to his friend "If the British march
BY land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang 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 on the opposite shore Will be
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Mddlesex village and farm
Por the country folk 10 be up and arm
Then he said Good night " and with muhied oal
Silently rowed to the CharlestO"n shoIe.
Just AZ the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moof1ngs. lay
The Somerst I, British maI-of war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the M on like prison bar.
And a huge black hulk that was niagnihed
3y its own reflection in the tide.
Mean while his friend, through alley and street
Wander and watches with eager ears.
Till ia the silence around he hears
The muster of men at the b irrack door,
The sound Of arms and the tramp of feet.
Aud tho measured tread Of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boat on the shore
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North
Church
Bv the wooden stairs with sleathy tread,
To the befry chamber overhead,
And startled the p geOns fr' m their perch,
on the sOmbre IA ers, that round him make
Masses and moving shapes of shade
BY the trembling ladder steep and tall
To the highest window in the wall
Where no paused to sten and look Down
NONE mt TN the roofs Of the town.
And the moonl,g ht flowing over sill
Beneath, in the churchyard. lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill
Wrapped in silence SO de- and still
That be could hear. like the sentiners tread.
The watchiul night wind as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent
Aud seeming TO whisper IAN is Welt.
moment only he feels he spell
u the place and the hour and the secret dread
OF the lonely belfry ana the dead:
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On q sbadowy something far away,
Where the river Wdens to meet the bay
A line OF black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like bridge OF boats.
Meanwhile. impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with 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 frightened his horses girth:
But mostly he watched with eager search
The befry tower Of The Old North Church.
As it rose above the graves on the HILL
Lonely and spectral and sOmbre and still,
And 10 az he looks, on the belfry's height
A z thinner, and hen CLEAN OF light
He springs to he saddle, the bride he turns.
But fingers ard gazes, till full OF his sight
A second lamp IN the belfry burns.
a hurry Of hoofs In a village street,
shape in the moonlight, y bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing,
Struck out by steed fying fearless and heet;
That was al Aud yet. through the gloom and
the light,
The t.te Of q nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck ont by that steed IN his light
kinded The land into flame with its heat.
9e has left this village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep
Is the ~ ste, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge
Now soft on the sand, now loud ON the ledge
10 heard the tramp Of his steed a. he rides
It WAS twelve by the village clock
" hen he crossed the bridge into Medford town
He heard the Growing Of the cock
And The barking of the faI mere dog,
Ana felt the damp of the river 9
That rises after the sun goes down.
Il was one by the village clock
When he gslloped 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 spectral glare,
As it they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
1t was two by the village clock
When he came to the bridge in Concord tswn;
He heard the bleating of the lock
And the twitter Of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
slowing over the meadows brown.
And ono safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall
W no that day would be lying dead
Pierced by q British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British regulars red and tied.
How the farmers gave the IN ball for bail
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 Niddlesex village and farm
cry of defiance, and not Of fear,
voice III the darkness, knock at the door
nd a word that shall echo furevermOre'
For, borne on the nght-wu Of the Past
Through all our history. to the last,
IN the ur OF darkness and peril and need.
\ no people will waktn and listen to hear
The buryipg hoof beats of that steed,
And the midnight message Of Paul Revere