Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-04-23
PAUL REvHRE's RIDE.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
OF the midnight ride Of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in seventy.ive;
Hardly man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, at the British march
BY land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Ofthe North Church tower as a signal light
One il by land, and two, if by sea;
And on the opposite shore will be
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village ana farm,
For the country folk to be up and t. arm; 49,
Then he said good uightln and with mnHeu oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
inst as the moon rose over the pay,
Where swinging wide at her mooflGgs' lay
The Somerset, British man-of war:
A phantom ship, with each mast ana spar
Across the moon ike a prison par, .
And the huge black hulk that was magnihed
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 tramp OF feet,
And the measured tread of the grenaders,
When he climbed the tower of 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 ratters, 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
moment on the roofs of the town
Beneath in the church. yard. lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the MI,
Wrapped in silence SO deep and still
That he could hear, like sentnel's tread,
The watchful night wind, AS II went
Creeping along from tent to tent
And seeming to whisper. IAN is well"
moment only feels the spell
or the place and the hour, and the secret dread;
or the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
Oh a shadowy something far away,
Where river WidcnS TO meet the Dav,-
fine 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 hc patted his horses side.
Now gazed at the landscape lar AMI near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and frightened his saddle grih;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The beliry tower of the Old North Church,
AS 1t rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still
And 10 as he looks, on the bellry's hei hit
giimmer, and then CLEAN OF light!
He springs 10 his saddle, the bride he lu'ns,
But fingers ana gazes, till full on his sigh.
second lamp In u c beliry burns
A hurry of ho is in village street.
A shape in the moonlight, bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, III passing spark
Struck out by stecd aging fearless and feet;
That was all And yet rough the gloom and the
light,
The late of nation riding that light;
And the spark struck out by that seed IN his flight.
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 son on the sand. now loud or the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of the stecd as he rides
IL was twelve by the village CLOCK
When he crossed the bridge into Mediorl town,
He heard the growing the cock,
And the barking of the farmers dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises aft r the sun goes down.
1t was one by the village cloes.
When he gall0ped 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 il they already stood aghass
At the bloody work they would look upon.
1t was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord towL.
He heard the bleatin2 OF the flock,
And the twitter of the birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze Il
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 British musketball
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British regulars fired and fed
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yari wall,
Chasing the red coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn OF ;he 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,
Cry of defence and not of fear,
voice in the darkness, knock at the door,
And word that shall echo iorevermorei
For borne on the nigh;.wind Of the past,
Through all our history, TO the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken ard listen to hear
The hurFying h0of beats OF that stced,
And the midnight message Of Paul Revere.