I hear in the chamber above me The patter of little feet, From my study I see in the lamplight, A whisper, and then a silence: Yet I know by their merry eyes A sudden rush from the stairway, They climb up into my turret O'er the arms and back of my chair; If I try to escape, they surround me; They seem to be everywhere. They almost devour me with kisses, Their arms about me entwine, Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine! Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti, Because you have scaled the wall, Such an old mustache as I am Is not a match for you all! I have you fast in my fortress, And will not let you depart, And there will I keep you forever, Till the walls shail crumble to ruin, 1859. PAUL REVERE'S RIDE1 20 30 40 1860. LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear 1 It is possible that Mr. Longfellow derived the story from Paul Revere's account of the incident in a letter to Dr. Jeremy Belknap, printed in Mass. Hist. Coll. V. Mr. Frothingham, in his Siege of Boston, pp. 57-59, gives the story mainly according to a memorandum of Richard Devens, Revere's friend and associate. The publication of Mr. Longfellow's poem called out a protracted discussion both as to the church from which On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Who remembers that famous day and year. One, if by land, and two, if by sea; Then he said, 'Good-night!' and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, Wanders and watches with eager ears, the signals were hung, and as to the friend who hung the lanterns. The subject is discussed and authorities cited in Memorial History of Boston, iii, 101. (Cambridge Edition, p. 668.) 'Paul Revere's Ride' is the first story in the Tales of a Wayside Inn, a series of tales in verse set in a frame-work something like that of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and supposed to be told by a group of friends gathered at the Red-Horse Inn at Sudbury, about twenty miles from Cambridge. The story of Paul Revere is told by the landlord, whose portrait is thus drawn in the 'Prelude: ' But first the Landlord will I trace; A man of ancient pedigree,, A Justice of the Peace was he, Known in all dbury as The Squire.' Proud was he of his name and race, Of old Sir William and Sir Hugh, And in the parlor, full in view, His coat-of-arms, well framed and glazed, Upon the wall in colors blazed: He beareth gules upon his shield, A chevron argent in the field, With three wolf's-heads, and for the crest The scroll reads, By the name of Howe.' Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; 50 60 Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 70 But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns! A hurry of hoofs in a village street, Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; IT was the season, when through all the land The merle and mavis build, and building sing Those lovely lyrics, written by his hand, Whom Saxon Cædmon calls the Blitheheart King; When on the boughs the purple buds expand, 1 The last story in Tales of a Wayside Inn, First Series, and the only one of those tales' which was almost wholly original with Longfellow. There is a slight foundation for it, in the history of the town of Killingworth in Connecticut. The Cambridge Edition of Longfellow quotes a letter of Mr. Henry Hull, who, writing from personal recollection, says:— The men of the northern part of the town did yearly in the spring choose two leaders, and then the two sides were formed: the side that got beaten should pay the bills. Their special game was the hawk, the owl, the crow, the blackbird, and any other bird supposed to be mischievous to the corn. Some years each side would bring them in by the bushel. This was followed up for only a few years, for the birds began to grow scarce.' In this poem, for once, Longfellow enters a field peculiarly belonging to Lowell: the half-humorous treatment of New England country life. Emerson considered it the best of the Tales, and called it (perhaps with a little exaggeration !), Serene, happy, and immortal as Chaucer." Then from his house, a temple painted white, With fluted columns, and a roof of red, The Squire came forth, august and splendid sight! Slowly descending, with majestic tread,. Three flights of steps, nor looking left nor right, Down the long street he walked, as one who said, 'A town that boasts inhabitants like me Can have no lack of good society!' The Parson, too, appeared, a man austere, The instinct of whose nature was to kill; 50 The wrath of God he preached from year to year, And read, with fervor, Edwards on the Will; |