1. Introduction

In 1836 a monument was erected at Conbord in memory of the battle which took place there April 19, 1775, the day after Paul Revere's ride. This poem was sung at the completion of the monument.

The memorial is called Battle Monument, and stands where the British fell instead of where "The Embattled Farmers" stood, as the poem says. At the other end of the bridge, where the farmers stood, another and finer monument was erected in 1875. It is a spirited figure of a "Minute Man." One stanza of this poem is carved on this later monument.

2. Reading Lesson

Concord Hymn

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument,

April 19,1836.

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 the 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.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

3. Study

1. Describe the picture you have of the "rude bridge." Is the word arched a good word here?

What does embattled mean? Look in the dictionary if you are not sure.

What did Emerson mean when he said that the shot was "heard round the world"?

2. Who is meant by "the foe"? Who by "the conqueror"? Make the meaning of the third line clear by putting the words in a different order.

Why does "Time" begin with a capital letter?

3. Do the words "soft stream" give you the same picture of the stream that the word "flood" in the first line does?

A "votive stone," one that shows devotion, or loving memory.

Redeem -their deed, keep it from being forgotten. Sires, fathers.

4. In this stanza, you see, Emerson seems to stop speaking to the people who are present, and turns to speak to some Spirit. What Spirit was it; that is, what did make

" those heroes dare To die and leave their children free "?

What does spare mean here? What does shaft mean?

What lines in each stanza rhyme? Is a stanza of four lines that rhyme in this way common? Find other poems having this sort of stanza.

4. Memory Work

Copy the poem and learn it.