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 today 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.
This year, the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It’s worth reflecting on the price patriots paid so that we might celebrate today. April 19th is the 201st anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. The first shot of the eight years of war that followed those battles became what, in his poem “Concord Hymn,” Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the shot heard round the world.”When he wrote “Concord Hymn” in 1837, Emerson (1803–1882) was no distant observer of the events he described. In fact, he wrote the poem from the second floor study of the Old Manse, the house built by his grandfather Rev. William Emerson in 1770. From the window of the study, he could look out over the site of the Battle of Concord, which was a stone’s throw from the house.
