Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a 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 to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
That the country folk may be ready
And so through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
That the British were coming,--that the enemy's fleet
Was dropping its anchors at the piers in Boston Bay.
You know the rest. In the books you have read:
How brave, how prudent, the people were;
How the courage and sklll in battle-field
Gave the honor it has evermore,
And made their fame one of the earth's dearest treasures--
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,--
And in books you may read the glorious details
That give his name household words all o'er the land;
His ride that night made us a mighty nation:
Loud and clear it rang through the startled air:
A cry of defiance and not of fear:
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!