Paul Revere — tonight’s the anniversary of his famous ride.
Paul Revere, 1768, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
John Copley painted all the bigwigs of revolutionary Boston, including this portrait of the famous horse-mounted alarm before he turned older and grayer.
And as April 18 is the anniversary of Revere’s ride, April 19 is the anniversary of the “shot heard ’round the world.”
Both events are celebrated in poetry; April is National Poetry Month. This could be a happy marriage for history and English classrooms.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] on the poems here and here — go get them and read them to your […]
LikeLike
[…] teachers will crack out the “Concord Hymn” and tell the story of Paul Revere, of course. Maybe a little Joyce Kilmer to reveal the tragedy of World War I, or “Death of the Ball […]
LikeLike
It’s pretty amazing that the start to the grand modern experiment in democracy began on the shoulders of one man– Jeremiah Bumsted single-handedly climbed the steps of the Old North Church, where he was sexton, to set the lanterns.
And on the withers of one horse, told in the expose, Mr. Revere And I. A companion expose is Ben and Me by Robert Lawson.
Recently David McCullough, the author of the recent Adams’ family HBO TV show, told Charlie Rose that one of his influential reads that got him interested in history was this latter book.
LikeLike