Year: 1861

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF PAUL RE-


WE'RE.


Listen, my children and you shall hear
OF the midnight ride Of Paul Revere,


On the eighteenth Of April, in Sevcnty-hve:
Hardly q man Is now alive -
Who remembers that famous day and year. y
He said to his friend, "If the British march
by land or sea from the town tonight
Hang a lantern aloft in the bClfrey-arch
OF the North Church tower, as q signal light
One il by land; two il by sea;


And on the e'opposite side will be,


Ready to ride and spread the alarm


Through every Middlesex village and farm.
For the country-fOlk to be up and to arm"
Then he said good night and with mutfled oar
Silently rowed to tue Charles.own shore,
Just as the moon rose above the bay,
Where swinging wide at her mornings lay
The Summerse;t, British man-of-war:
phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon, like a prison-bar,


And huge black hulk, that was maguifed
by its own reflection on the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, Though alley and stree.
Wonders and watches with eager ears,
Till il toe silence around him b. hears
The muster of men at the burrack-door,
The sound Of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread Of the grcnodiers
March down - their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed to tue tower Of the Church,
10 the wooden stairs, with StCalthly tread,
10 the bGlrcy- y-chamhGr overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
Tn the sombre raterS, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes Of shade
Up the light ladder, slender and tall,
To the highest window i'll the wall,
Where he paused TO listen and look down
a moment 90 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 still,
That he could hear, like sentnel's trood
The watchful nigbt-wiud, aa il went
Creeping along from ten TO tent


And seeming 10 whisper, "All Is well !"
A moment only he fe1s the spell
OF the place and the hour, and the secret dread
OF the lonely belfIey and the dcad
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where The river widens to meet the bay
\ line OF black that bends aud 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 gdzed on the landscape far and near,
Then impetuous stamped the earth,
And turned and tightcned his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfrey-tlwer Of the Old North Church,
As il rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely, and spectral, sombre aud STILL
And 10 as he looks on the belfroy's hight
A glmmer, and then a glecm Of light
He springs 10 the saddle the bride he turns,
But fingers and gazcs, till full on his sight
\ second lamp in the beltrey burns!
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape In the moonlight, bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless ard fleet;
That all And yet thro' the gloom and the light,
The fate of the nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight
Kiudled the land into fame with its heat.
II was twelve by the village clock,
When he crossed the bridge into &edford 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 when the sun goes down
1t was one by the village clock,
When he rode into Lexington.
Hs saw the guided weather-cock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting house window blank aud bare,
Gaze at him with spectral glare.
AS If they already stood aghast
Al the bloody work they would look upon.
1t was two by the village clock,
When he came % the bridge in Concord town
He heard the beating OF the Cock,
And the twter Of the birds amonge the trees,
And he felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And enc was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first 10 fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by British musket-ball
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,
Prom behind each fence and farm-yard wall
Chasing the red-eoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields 70 emerge again
Under the trees at the turn Of the road,
And only passing to fire and load.
50 through the night rode Paul Revere;
And 30 taruugh 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, knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forever more
For, born on the night-wind OF the past,
Through all our history, 70 The last
In the hour of darkness, and peril and psed,
The people win wsken and listen end bear
The hurIying hoof-beat Of that steed,
And the midnight message OF Paul Revere