Battle of Concord
April 19, 2020Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882)
Vol. 42, pp. 1245-1246
of The Harvard Classics
Dr. Eliot says of
the opening stanza of the "Concord Hymn": "In
twenty-eight words here are the whole scene and all the essential
circumstances . . . what an accurate, moving, immortal description is
this!"
(The Battle of
Concord was fought on April 19, 1775.)
Concord
Hymn
Sung at
the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837
BY the rude bridge that
arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze
unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the
world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward
creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are
gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
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