Paul Revere’s Ride (The Landlord’s Tale)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear(Scholé Day 1: ll. 1-5)

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

5 Who remembers that famous day and year?

He said to his friend, "If the British march(Scholé Day 2: ll. 6-14)

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,—

10 One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore 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."

15 Then he said, "Good night!" and with muffled oar(Scholé Day 3: ll. 15-23)

Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,

Just as the moon rose over the bay,

Where swinging wide at her moorings lay

The Somerset, British man-of-war;

20 A phantom ship, with each mast and spar

Across the moon like a prison bar,

And a huge black hulk, that was magnified

By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,(Scholé Day 4: ll. 24-30)

25 Wanders and watches with eager ears,

Till in the silence around him he hears

The muster of men at the barrack door,

The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,

And the measured tread of the grenadiers,

30 Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,(Scholé Day 5: ll. 31-38)

By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,

To the belfry-chamber overhead,

And startled the pigeons from their perch

35 On the sombre rafters, that round him made

Masses and moving shapes of shade, —

By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,

To the highest window in the wall,

Where he paused to listen and look down(Scholé Day 6: ll. 39-49)

40 A moment on the roofs of the town,

And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,

In their night-encampment on the hill,

Wrapped in silence so deep and still

45 That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,

The watchful night-wind, as it went

Creeping along from tent to tent,

And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"

A moment only he feels the spell

50 Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread(Scholé Day 7: ll. 50-56)

Of the lonely belfry and the dead;

For suddenly all his thoughts are bent

On a shadowy something far away,

Where the river widens to meet the bay, —

55 A line of black that bends and floats

On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,(Scholé Day 8: ll. 57-69)

Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.

60 Now he patted his horse's side,

Now gazed at the landscape far and near,

Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,

And turned and tightened his saddle girth;

But mostly he watched with eager s