I’m still struggling to get my younger daughter, at least, to learn this one. She had pretty much memorized the first half when we were forced to flee Russia. We had to leave the wonderful illustrated book behind.
I do pray for you and your family, Rus. Longfellow was once so beloved, but even when I was in high school (where we read the WHOLE of British and American literature) he was slighted. But I understand now how very fine his work was. And at that when I was in school every American was familiar with this poem. God bless and protect your family.
We're glad you enjoyed it, Nancy. Longfellow wrote poetry with strong rhythms and in his own day would have expected his readers to at least hear it in their mind's ear as they read it. But great poetry is meant to be read aloud. We hope this second year to do more such.
Followed the red brick road of the Freedom Trail in Boston with my four children when they were in elementary school. Of course one of the main highlights was the North Church which kindled their imagination and historical inquiry.
Thanks for calling this poem to mind again. " Paul Revere's Ride" stirred beautiful memories.
Ah, Elizabeth, I only saw the Old North Church one time... When Tony was so sick with his leg and had to be taken to Tufts Hospital. My dad was in from PA and took me to see him and we only had time to walk by the place. But it meant a lot for my dad to see it. He was a patriot and never lost his sense of childlike wonder.
I was one of those school children who memorize this poem. I loved the rhyme and the meter, and the urgency of it all. I lived in New England at the time, not that far from some of the events, and my mom was from the Boston area. Thank you for sharing.
This poem was in living memory known by every American. But we fancy ourselves too "sophisticated" for such as Longfellow now. I'm so glad you enjoyed hearing it again!
When I was a child, my mother who was educated during the 1920's and early 30's, would entertain me and my siblings by reciting 'Paul Revere's Ride', which she knew by memory, as well as swaths of "Hiawatha' and 'Evangeline.' Her repertoire of poems was large, all having been learned during her schooldays. Even during my youth, the 1950's, reading and memorizing great poetry was part of our classwork. Times have changed. Your poem of the day recalled a vision of six children sitting around our woodstove listening to the wonderful poetry our mother taught us! Special indeed! Thank you!
That reminds me of a story that the poet and raconteur Louis Untermeyer told at the beginning of one of his books on introducing young people to poetry. He was countering the charge that there was something sissy-like about the art, so he told of a high school class in which each student was to recite a poem he had committed to memory, while another student was asked to evaluate how his classmate had done. One of the boys then recited Gray's Elegy on a Prospect of Eton College, a poem of the innocence of boyhood, and how that innocence must pass away; the poem that ends with the immortal lines, "No more -- where ignorance is bliss, / 'Tis folly to be wise."
The teacher then called on another boy to comment. This second boy was a linebacker on the football team. He said, "I cannot comment. It was very fine. This is my favorite poem in the world. I have nothing to say." And he was too moved to speak...
I was borned in South Boston MA in 1935. I once sat in the Old North church when I was older. I read and loved The midnight ride of Paul Revere when in school in Boston. I remember riding past Longfellow's home in Cambridge I can remember it had a lovely and elegant front door. Anthony I could listen to you all day. I love what you are doing here. Children of today should weep for what they have lost, the innocence of life.
Thanks -- and that is what we're trying to do. We are trying to return to people's awareness some of the beauty and the goodness and the truth of the arts that were once part of our common heritage. It need not be lost forever. May God help us, but if we all do our part, it WILL not be lost forever!
Marie, thank you for that thoughtful comment. My husband has been sounding the alarm about the assaults on our childrens' innocence for decades IN PRINT and in person. By now whole generations have grown up with malformed imaginations -- so much so that they can't even begin to read a poem as straightforward as "Paul Revere's Ride" and understand it at all. If they heard it read, they likely would still not "get it." Too OLD. Too SENTIMENTAL. Too human, I am afraid. We decided to homeschool our kids before we were even married -- because we were at that time in graduate school in English Literature, and as part of our training we were teaching English Composition to freshmen, most of whom were education majors. But they couldn't put together a sentence without major errors of grammar, they had no general knowledge, they could not read a text of any type and understand it. These were going to be our kids' teachers, we thought??? No. We just said "no." It turned out that we ran our school's homeschooling organization for about 15 years to make a social network for our own kids and ourselves, in fact. And we taught classes, we hired knowledgeable people to teach, we formed co-ops to share the teaching, and we kept our kids out of the institution that our public school had become -- even then. And it's so much worse now, with activism driving every single thing that is taught to our young folks. And they are taught a lot that is just outright insane. But we were small in number, relatively speaking, and we ultimately could only give a real childhood to our own and help others do the same. What is going on now, what is foisted off on children, is absolute abuse. They are gotten to before they even get to the first grade. Parents still could take their kids out of the over-arching institution, but they would nowadays have to first acknowledge how little they themselves actually learned in their own education. We are doing our little tiny part here at Word & Song to reclaim what we can.
We are really grateful for our subscribers who, like us, want some sort of cultural restoration.
I’m still struggling to get my younger daughter, at least, to learn this one. She had pretty much memorized the first half when we were forced to flee Russia. We had to leave the wonderful illustrated book behind.
I do pray for you and your family, Rus. Longfellow was once so beloved, but even when I was in high school (where we read the WHOLE of British and American literature) he was slighted. But I understand now how very fine his work was. And at that when I was in school every American was familiar with this poem. God bless and protect your family.
Long poem but very well read and worth listening to the whole poem. Thank you!
We're glad you enjoyed it, Nancy. Longfellow wrote poetry with strong rhythms and in his own day would have expected his readers to at least hear it in their mind's ear as they read it. But great poetry is meant to be read aloud. We hope this second year to do more such.
Followed the red brick road of the Freedom Trail in Boston with my four children when they were in elementary school. Of course one of the main highlights was the North Church which kindled their imagination and historical inquiry.
Thanks for calling this poem to mind again. " Paul Revere's Ride" stirred beautiful memories.
Ah, Elizabeth, I only saw the Old North Church one time... When Tony was so sick with his leg and had to be taken to Tufts Hospital. My dad was in from PA and took me to see him and we only had time to walk by the place. But it meant a lot for my dad to see it. He was a patriot and never lost his sense of childlike wonder.
I was one of those school children who memorize this poem. I loved the rhyme and the meter, and the urgency of it all. I lived in New England at the time, not that far from some of the events, and my mom was from the Boston area. Thank you for sharing.
This poem was in living memory known by every American. But we fancy ourselves too "sophisticated" for such as Longfellow now. I'm so glad you enjoyed hearing it again!
When I was a child, my mother who was educated during the 1920's and early 30's, would entertain me and my siblings by reciting 'Paul Revere's Ride', which she knew by memory, as well as swaths of "Hiawatha' and 'Evangeline.' Her repertoire of poems was large, all having been learned during her schooldays. Even during my youth, the 1950's, reading and memorizing great poetry was part of our classwork. Times have changed. Your poem of the day recalled a vision of six children sitting around our woodstove listening to the wonderful poetry our mother taught us! Special indeed! Thank you!
That reminds me of a story that the poet and raconteur Louis Untermeyer told at the beginning of one of his books on introducing young people to poetry. He was countering the charge that there was something sissy-like about the art, so he told of a high school class in which each student was to recite a poem he had committed to memory, while another student was asked to evaluate how his classmate had done. One of the boys then recited Gray's Elegy on a Prospect of Eton College, a poem of the innocence of boyhood, and how that innocence must pass away; the poem that ends with the immortal lines, "No more -- where ignorance is bliss, / 'Tis folly to be wise."
The teacher then called on another boy to comment. This second boy was a linebacker on the football team. He said, "I cannot comment. It was very fine. This is my favorite poem in the world. I have nothing to say." And he was too moved to speak...
What a treasure you just shared with us. Thank you for sharing that wonderful memory with us all. What a poverty modern home life is by comparison.
Forever grateful!
Thank you, Carey. It touches us deeply to know that there are still hearts that are moved by hearing a poem such as this.
I was borned in South Boston MA in 1935. I once sat in the Old North church when I was older. I read and loved The midnight ride of Paul Revere when in school in Boston. I remember riding past Longfellow's home in Cambridge I can remember it had a lovely and elegant front door. Anthony I could listen to you all day. I love what you are doing here. Children of today should weep for what they have lost, the innocence of life.
Thanks -- and that is what we're trying to do. We are trying to return to people's awareness some of the beauty and the goodness and the truth of the arts that were once part of our common heritage. It need not be lost forever. May God help us, but if we all do our part, it WILL not be lost forever!
Marie, thank you for that thoughtful comment. My husband has been sounding the alarm about the assaults on our childrens' innocence for decades IN PRINT and in person. By now whole generations have grown up with malformed imaginations -- so much so that they can't even begin to read a poem as straightforward as "Paul Revere's Ride" and understand it at all. If they heard it read, they likely would still not "get it." Too OLD. Too SENTIMENTAL. Too human, I am afraid. We decided to homeschool our kids before we were even married -- because we were at that time in graduate school in English Literature, and as part of our training we were teaching English Composition to freshmen, most of whom were education majors. But they couldn't put together a sentence without major errors of grammar, they had no general knowledge, they could not read a text of any type and understand it. These were going to be our kids' teachers, we thought??? No. We just said "no." It turned out that we ran our school's homeschooling organization for about 15 years to make a social network for our own kids and ourselves, in fact. And we taught classes, we hired knowledgeable people to teach, we formed co-ops to share the teaching, and we kept our kids out of the institution that our public school had become -- even then. And it's so much worse now, with activism driving every single thing that is taught to our young folks. And they are taught a lot that is just outright insane. But we were small in number, relatively speaking, and we ultimately could only give a real childhood to our own and help others do the same. What is going on now, what is foisted off on children, is absolute abuse. They are gotten to before they even get to the first grade. Parents still could take their kids out of the over-arching institution, but they would nowadays have to first acknowledge how little they themselves actually learned in their own education. We are doing our little tiny part here at Word & Song to reclaim what we can.
We are really grateful for our subscribers who, like us, want some sort of cultural restoration.