{"id":13845,"date":"2012-04-19T14:20:10","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=13845"},"modified":"2012-04-19T22:42:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T02:42:33","slug":"on-this-day-237-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/13845\/on-this-day-237-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day, 237 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
\nTheir flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
\nHere once the embattled farmers stood,
\nAnd fired the shot heard round the world.<\/p>\n

The foe long since in silence slept;
\nAlike the conqueror silent sleeps;
\nAnd Time the ruined bridge has swept
\nDown the dark stream which seaward creeps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
\nWe set to-day a votive stone;
\nThat memory may their deed redeem,
\nWhen, like our sires, our sons are gone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
\nTo die, and leave their children free,
\nBid Time and Nature gently spare
\nThe shaft we raise to them and thee.<\/p>\n

— Emerson<\/p>\n

which, of course, followed this:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
\nOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
\nOn the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
\nHardly a man is now alive
\nWho remembers that famous day and year.<\/p>\n

He said to his friend, \u2014 “If the British march
\nBy land or sea from the town to-night,
\nHang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
\nOf the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light, \u2014
\nOne if by land, and two if by sea;
\nAnd I on the opposite shore will be,
\nReady to ride and spread the alarm
\nThrough every Middlesex village and farm,
\nFor the country-folk to be up and to arm.”<\/p>\n

Then he said good-night, and with muffled oar
\nSilently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
\nJust as the moon rose over the bay,
\nWhere swinging wide at her moorings lay
\nThe Somersett, British man-of-war:
\nA phantom ship, with each mast and spar
\nAcross the moon, like a prison-bar,
\nAnd a huge, black hulk, that was magnified
\nBy its own reflection in the tide.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
\nWanders and watches with eager ears,
\nTill in the silence around him he hears
\nThe muster of men at the barrack-door,
\nThe sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
\nAnd the measured tread of the grenadiers
\nMarching down to their boats on the shore.<\/p>\n

Then he climbed to the tower of the church,
\nUp the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
\nTo the belfry-chamber overhead,
\nAnd startled the pigeons from their perch
\nOn the sombre rafters, that round him made
\nMasses and moving shapes of shade, \u2014
\nUp the light ladder, slender and tall,
\nTo the highest window in the wall,
\nWhere he paused to listen and look down
\nA moment on the roofs of the town,
\nAnd the moonlight flowing over all.<\/p>\n

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead
\nIn their night-encampment on the hill,
\nWrapped in silence so deep and still,
\nThat he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,
\nThe watchful night-wind, as it went
\nCreeping along from tent to tent,
\nAnd seeming to whisper, “All is well!”
\nA moment only he feels the spell
\nOf the place and the hour, the secret dread
\nOf the lonely belfry and the dead;
\nFor suddenly all his thoughts are bent
\nOn a shadowy something far away,
\nWhere the river widens to meet the bay, \u2014
\nA line of black, that bends and floats
\nOn the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
\nBooted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
\nOn the opposite shore walked Paul Revere
\nNow he patted his horse’s side,
\nNow gazed on the landscape far and near,
\nThen impetuous stamped the earth,
\nAnd turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
\nBut mostly he watched with eager search
\nThe belfry-tower of the old North Church,
\nAs it rose above the graves on the hill,
\nLonely, and spectral, and sombre, and still.<\/p>\n

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height,
\nA glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
\nHe springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
\nBut lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
\nA second lamp in the belfry burns!<\/p>\n

A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
\nA shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
\nAnd beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
\nStruck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:
\nThat was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
\nThe fate of a nation was riding that night;
\nAnd the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
\nKindled the land into flame with its heat.<\/p>\n

It was twelve by the village-clock,
\nWhen he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
\nHe heard the crowing of the cock,
\nAnd the barking of the farmer’s dog,
\nAnd felt the damp of the river-fog,
\nThat rises when the sun goes down.<\/p>\n

It was one by the village-clock,
\nWhen he rode into Lexington.
\nHe saw the gilded weathercock
\nSwim in the moonlight as he passed,
\nAnd the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
\nGaze at him with a spectral glare,
\nAs if they already stood aghast
\nAt the bloody work they would look upon.<\/p>\n

It was two by the village-clock,
\nWhen be came to the bridge in Concord town.
\nHe heard the bleating of the flock,
\nAnd the twitter of birds among the trees,
\nAnd felt the breath of the morning-breeze
\nBlowing over the meadows brown.
\nAnd one was safe and asleep in his bed
\nWho at the bridge would be first to fall,
\nWho that day would be lying dead,
\nPierced by a British musket-ball.<\/p>\n

You know the rest. In the books you have read
\nHow the British regulars fired and fled, \u2014
\nHow the farmers gave them ball for ball,
\nFrom behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
\nChasing the red-coats down the lane,
\nThen crossing the fields to emerge again
\nUnder the trees at the turn of the road,
\nAnd only pausing to fire and load.<\/p>\n

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
\nAnd so through the night went his cry of alarm
\nTo every Middlesex village and farm, \u2014
\nA cry of defiance, and not of fear, \u2014
\nA voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
\nAnd a word that shall echo forevermore!
\nFor, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
\nThrough all our history, to the last,
\nIn the hour of darkness and peril and need,
\nThe people will waken and listen to hear
\nThe hurrying hoof-beat of that steed,
\nAnd the midnight-message of Paul Revere.<\/p>\n

— Longfellow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13856,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13845\/revisions\/13856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}