StoryTitle("caps", "Paul Revere's Ride") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(117, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Listen my children, and you shall hear", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hardly a man is now alive", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who remembers that famous day and year.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He said to his friend, \"If the British march", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By land or sea from the town to-night,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "One, if by land, and two, if by sea;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I on the opposite shore will be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ready to ride and spread the alarm", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through every Middlesex village and farm,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the country folk to be up and to arm.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then he said \"Good-night!\" and with muffled oar", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Just as the moon rose over the bay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where swinging wide at her moorings lay", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Somerset, British man-of-war;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A phantom ship, with each mast and spar", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Across the moon like a prison bar,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a huge black hulk, that was magnified", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By its own reflection in the tide.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wanders and watches with eager ears,", "") ?>
PagePoem(118, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till in the silence around him he hears", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The muster of men at the barrack door,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the measured tread of the grenadiers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Marching down to their boats on the shore.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the belfry-chamber overhead,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And startled the pigeons from their perch", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the sombre rafters, that round him made", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Masses and moving shapes of shade,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the highest window in the wall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where he paused to listen and look down", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A moment on the roofs of the town,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the moonlight flowing over all.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In their night encampment on the hill,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wrapped in silence so deep and still", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The watchful night-wind, as it went", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Creeping along from tent to tent,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And seeming to whisper, \"All is well!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A moment only he feels the spell", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the lonely belfry and the dead;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For suddenly all his thoughts are bent", "") ?>
PagePoem(119, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On a shadowy something far away,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the river widens to meet the bay,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A line of black that bends and floats", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now he patted his horse's side,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And turned and tightened his saddle girth;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But mostly he watched with eager search", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The belfry tower of the Old North Church,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As it rose above the graves on the hill,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A second lamp in the belfry burns.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A hurry of hoofs in a village street,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The fate of a nation was riding that night;", "") ?>
PagePoem(120, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Kindled the land into flame with its heat.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He has left the village and mounted the steep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And under the alders that skirt its edge,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was twelve by the village clock", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He heard the crowing of the cock,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the barking of the farmer's dog,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And felt the damp of the river fog,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That rises after the sun goes down.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was one by the village clock,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When he galloped into Lexington.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He saw the gilded weathercock", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Swim in the moonlight as he passed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Gaze at him with a spectral glare,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if they already stood aghast", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At the bloody work they would look upon.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was two by the village clock,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When he came to the bridge in Concord town.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He heard the bleating of the flock,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the twitter of birds among the trees,", "") ?>
PagePoem(121, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And felt the breath of the morning breeze", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Blowing over the meadow brown.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And one was safe and asleep in his bed", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who at the bridge would be first to fall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who that day would be lying dead,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Pierced by a British musket ball.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You know the rest. In the books you have read", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How the British Regulars fired and fled, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How the farmers gave them ball for ball,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From behind each fence and farmyard wall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Chasing the red-coats down the lane,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then crossing the fields to emerge again", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Under the trees at the turn of the road,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And only pausing to fire and load.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So through the night rode Paul Revere;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And so through the night went his cry of alarm", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To every Middlesex village and farm,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A cry of defiance, and not of fear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a word that shall echo forevermore!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through all our history, to the last,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the hour of darkness and peril and need,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The people will waken and listen to hear", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The hurrying hoof beats of that steed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the midnight message of Paul Revere. ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>