The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-04-30
PAUL REvERE,s RIDE.
By HENRY wADswoRrH LoNerLIow.


BY HENRY wADswoRrH LoNoFLLow.
Lsten, my children, and you shall hear
OF the midnight ride Of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth day of April, in seventy-hye;
Hardly man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said TO his friend III the British m.ASh
by land or sea from the town to- night.
Hang a lantern aloft in the belly arch
q OF the North Church tower, as a signal light
One, IL by land, aud two, If by sea
And ON the opposite shore will be
Ready 10 ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm
For the country-folk TO be up and ARM
Then he said e" Coed night = and with muffied
silently rowed 10 the Charlestown shore,
Just AS the moon over the bay.
Where, swinging wide at her moorngs, lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war
phantom ship. with each mast and spar
ACROSS the moon like prison bar,
And huge black hulk. that was nagnihed
BY its own reflection IN the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley aud street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound Of arms, and the tramp of feet,
Amt the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down 10 their boat on the shore
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
ny the wooden stairs, with steathy tread,
And started the pigeons from their perch,
On the eombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade
by the trembling ladder steep ana tan,
To the highest window in the wall
Where he paused 10 listen and look down
moment ON the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the church-yard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence SO deep and stu
That he could hear, like the sentinel's tread,
The Watchful pight-wind, AZ IL went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming 10 whisper All il we'll :"
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 al his thoughts are bent
on q shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens TO meet the bay
line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, lie bridge OF boats.
Meanwhile, impatient 10 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 belfry-tower of the Old North Church,
As IL rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely, and spectral, and sombre, and still,
And 10! as he looks on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then CLEAN of light!
He springs TO the saddle, the bride he turns,
But fingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
shape in the moonlight a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing,
Struck out 10y steed flying fearless and feet;
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 its fight
Kindled the land into fame with its heat.
He has left the village aud mounted the steep,
And beneath him TRANQUIL and broad and deem
rs 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.
1t was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town;
He heard the Growing of the cock
And the barking OF the farmers 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 galoped into Lexington.
He saw the glded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed.
And the meeting house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with spectral glare,
As If they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
1t was two 10y the village clock
When he came 10 the bridge at Concord town;
He heard the bleating of the 1ock,
And the tSitter Of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brswn.
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 musket-bal
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British regulars fred and fed.
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
Ans only pausing 20 fire and load.
so through the night rode Paul Revere;
And 40 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 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