Welcome back to the Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Friday, July 3rd, 2020.

Tomorrow, of course, therefore, is July 4th, and I want to wish you a happy 4th of July.

And today's poem is in keeping with celebrating the 4th of July.

Today and then on Monday also, I'm going to read two poems that are, you know, July 4th themed, I suppose.

Today's poem is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet who lived from 1807 to 1882.

His most famous work is probably the poem that I'm going to read today, and it's called Paul Revere's Ride.

But, of course, he also was the author of The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline

and was the first America to translate Dante's Divine Comedy into English. As I said, the poem

that I'm going to read today is Paul Revere's Ride, which was written in 1860, and it's a poem that

celebrates or remembers the famous, dramatic, horseback ride of Paul Revere in April of 1775.

So although this poem is not about an event that happened on July 4th, it is about an event that was central to the events that we do commemorate on July 4th.

This poem was first published in 1861 in the Atlantic Monthly,

and then was also retitled The Landlords Inn in Longfellow's collection called Tales of a Wayside Inn.

I'm only going to read it once because it is long.

It's a narrative poem that is a little bit long,

but you can hit that restart button if you'd like.

So here is Longfellow's Paul Revere's ride.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, on the 18th of April and 75.

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 tonight hang a lantern aloft in the Belfrey arch of the North Church Tower as a signal light.

One if by land and two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore will be arch of the North Church Tower as a signal light.

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.

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