Today is the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride through the Massachusetts countryside warning “every MIddlesex village and farm” that the British regulars were marching out of Boston to look for and capture the arms that the colonials had stashed in Lexington and Concord.

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.

I rather enjoy that old chestnut of a poem, and here’s a cartoon version in which The Flame recites Longfellow’s famous poem:

There’s an Adventures in Odyssey episode that points out the historical flaws in Longfellow’s version of the story, but it’s still a good poem.

More Longfellow:
As I’ve said before, Longfellow isn’t always as well-respected as I believe he ought to be. However, I think he’s a fine poet, especially for those of us who enjoy poems that tell stories.

Longfellow, Hurricanes and The Wreck of the Hesperus.

A Celebration of Longfellow

Longfellow’s Birthday

This is the forest primeval . . .