Charles Bahne — “Listen, my children!”: How Longfellow’s poem turned Paul Revere into a national hero

Charles Bahne

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…” On the eighteenth of April in 1775, Paul Revere set out on a nighttime journey that would become legend. Eighty-five years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stood at his desk, pencil in hand, and drafted the lines that would form that legend. Originally a clandestine mission of military intelligence, the midnight ride of Paul Revere is now one of the best-known events in American history — just as “Paul Revere’s Ride” is one of the best-loved poems of American literature. This program will examine how Longfellow came to learn about Revere’s ride, and his motivations for writing about it. We’ll look at the reaction to the poem after it was published, how it became associated with the famous Wayside Inn, and how and why it is historically inaccurate. Included will be a reading of stanzas that were edited out and never made it into print.