11 Apr Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride,” poem revisited in light of 250th
On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere set off on his famed “midnight ride.” The next day the Battle of Lexington and Concord unfolded and the “shot heard round the world” ignited the Revolutionary War.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” originally published out of the Old Corner Bookstore, popularized the story of Revere’s ride. It is the very reason we commonly refer to this action as the “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” However, over time the poem’s original context and the fuller story of the “midnight ride” have faded.
Revere wasn’t alone in his mission to warn colonial militiamen that the “Regulars [were] coming” to seize military stockpiles in Concord. Revere was joined by William Dawes and Samuel Prescott and was actually captured outside of Concord, leaving Dawes and Prescott to carry the message across the county themselves.
But with the stroke of his pen, Longfellow immortalized the singular story of Paul Revere, turning the man into one of many such American Myths.
What is perhaps more interesting, is that Longfellow’s poem and its story are actually rooted in the bubbling national unrest unfolding in April 1860, when Longfellow began writing it and more than 85 years after Revere’s now famous ride. By the time Longfellow’s most well-known poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly out of the Old Corner Bookstore in January 1861, numerous states had seceded from the Union and by April the nation was at war.
With war on the horizon, Longfellow reflected on the nation’s past as much as its future. A staunch abolitionist, Longfellow wrote “Paul Revere’s Ride” to unify a nation at odds, to remind America of its sacred oath to uphold liberty as the Civil War beckoned. The final stanza has largely been interpreted as a call to action for his fellow Americans to wake up “in the hour of darkness and peril and need” and recall those sacred ideals the United States was founded upon:
“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-beat of that steed,
And the midnight-message of Paul Revere.”
As Boston kicks off the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution commemorations this April, we find it timely to reflect on our nation’s founding principles with a reading of Longfellow’s poem.
Don’t miss the Paul Revere House and Old North Church leading the charge on Boston’s 250th celebrations. Old North Illuminated annually reenacts the hanging of the lanterns in Old North’s steeple and Paul Revere’s Ride on or around April 18th, but this year’s reenactment will be particularly special as their guest of honor Ken Burns delivers a keynote reflecting on the nation’s founding on this momentous occasion. Their celebration also includes a very special reading of Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.”