Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-08
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
PAUL REvERE's RIDE.

An incident OF the Revolutionary W ar
Listen. my children, and you shall hear
Ofthe midnight ride OF Paul Revere
On the eighteenth OF April, in Seventy-hye;
Hardly 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 tonight.
Hang lantern alolt 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 NiddleseX village and farm,
For the country folk TO be up and 10 arm.
Then ne said, p" Goodnight ~ and with mufied
Silently rowed to the Charlestowu shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay.
Where swinging wide at her mOorings lay
The Somerset British man-of-War;
\ phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon ike prison bar.
And huge black hulk, that was magnifed
BY its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,
Wanders aad watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barTack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet
And the measured tread Of the greuadiers,
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-ChambeT overhead
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the somber rafters that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade
By the trembling LADDER stecP-and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
4 moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over al.
Beneath. in the churchyard. lay the dead.
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence 80 deep and still
That he could hear, like seutinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent.
And seemed to whisper, All is well r.
A moment only he feels the spell
Ofthe place and the hour, and the secret dread
of the lonely belfry and the dead
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On shadOwy something far away,
Where the river wldenS TO meet the bay.
\ iue OF black that bends and ioats
On the rising tide, like bridge OF boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount aud ride
Booted and spurred, with heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his morse ; side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near
Then. impetuous stamped the earth,
And turned and frightened 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 Som3er and still.
And 10 as he looks, on the bellryS hight,
\ glimmer and then CLEAN of light
He springs to the saddle. the bride he turns,
But fingers and gazes, till full on MS sight
\ second lamp in the beltry burns,
\ hurry of hoofs in village street
\ shape il the moonlight, Il bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a
spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and aeet;
That was all And yet, through the gloom and
the light,
The fate OF nation was riding that night.
And the spark struck out by the steed in his
flight.
Kindled the land into flame with its heat
lie has left the village, and mounted the steep,
And beneath him. tranquil ana broad ana 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 rs lie rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into MedfOsl town.
He heard the growing of the cock
And the barking of the farmer dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog.
That rises alter the sun goes down.
It was onc by the village clock.
When he Salloped into Lexington
lie saw the gildcd weatheTcock
SWIM in the moonlight us he passed
And the meeting house windows, blank and
bare.
Gaze at him with a spectral glare.
As II they already stood aghuSt
At the bloody work they should look upon.
1t 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 tclt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who III the bridge would be first to fall
Who that day would be lying dead
Pierced by British muSket-jal.
You know the rest. In the books Won have read
How the British Regulars fired and fed
How the farmers gave them bail tor ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall
Chasing the red-cOats down the lane.
Then crossing the fields 20 emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road
And only pauSing 10 fire and load
So through the night rode Paul Revere:
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every MiddlcseX village and farm
\ cry OF defiance and not OF fear
voice il the darkness, knock ut the door
And a word that shall echo eyermorc.
For, borne on the nght-wind of the Past.
Through ali 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.
-lllenry ". Lonsfelow.