Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)

 Poetry on Peace

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Concord Hymn (1837)


Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Minuteman

Daniel Chester French (1850-1931)
Concord Minuteman (1875)

Concord & Lexington Statues

Lexington Minuteman

Lexington & Concord Stamps
Issued: April 4, 1925

CONCORD HYMN

                  Sung at the Completion of the
                  Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

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, that made those heroes dare
    To die, or leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
    The shaft we raise to them and Thee.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882),
Concord Hymn, July 4, 1837

Bill Clinton's favorite poem

Notes: This poem was written to dedicate the monument at the site of the Battle
of Concord, Massachusetts, originally to be held on April 19, 1836. Due to delays,
the celebration was actually held on July 4, 1837. The poem was composed not long
before, for in a letter of June 27, Emerson's mother wrote his brother William that
"Waldo, has written a hymn, to be sung to the tune of old hundred". The hymn was sung
by the assembled townspeople, but Emerson was not among them; on that day he was in
Plymouth with Lidian. (The Poetry Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edited by
Ralph H. Orth, Albert J. Von Frank, Linda Allardt, and David W. Hill, University of
Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1986, p. 764)

Works of Emerson | Emerson Poems | Biography | Emerson's 200th Birthday |
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