Tomorrow is Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts and Maine, which used to be part of Massachusetts before the Compromise of 1820. The official day off falls on next Monday, but tomorrow is when the Minutemen will meet again the redcoats in the annual reenactment in Concord of the moment which incited Americans to become a nation. Above, a restoration of “the rude bridge” where the farmers took their stand.
Concord Hymn
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
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 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! who made those freemen dare
To die, or leave their children free,
Bid time and nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and Thee.
Been to Lexington-Concord? Bought a tricorn hat? Let us know.
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