April 19, 1775

Today is April 19, the 233rd anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord that began the American War of Independence.

Here is Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” written in 1836 to commemorate an Obelisk raised in memory of the battle. Today the words of the hymn are inscribed in the base of the great Minuteman Statue by Daniel Chester French (also the sculptor of the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial) that stands near the Concord Bridge where the main battle took place. Any American who has not been to Concord Bridge should try to go.

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 that seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,—
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raised to them and Thee.

Curiously, only the first verse is about the battle. The last three verses are about the passage of time since the battle, and the effort to arrest it through the raising of the monument.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 19, 2008 05:04 PM | Send