The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

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The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Writer And Grant Wood, Painter Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen my children and you shall hear of the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

1
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Writer
And
Grant Wood, Painter

2
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen my children and you shall hear
of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march By
land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a
lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North
Church tower as a signal light, One if by land,
and two if by sea And I on the opposite shore
will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm, For
the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled
oarSilently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where
swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset,
British man-of-war A phantom ship, with each
mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified By
its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears, Till in
the silence around him he hears The muster of
men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and
the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the
grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the
shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North
Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy
tread, To the belfry chamber overhead, And
startled the pigeons from their perch On the
sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and
moving shapes of shade, By the trembling
ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in
the wall, Where he paused to listen and look
down A moment on the roofs of the town And the
moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In
their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in
silence so deep and still That he could hear,
like a sentinels tread, The watchful
night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent
to tent, And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"

A moment only he feels the spell Of the place
and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely
belfry and the dead For suddenly all his
thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far
away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,
A line of black that bends and floats On the
rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted
and spurred, with a heavy stride On the opposite
shore walked Paul Revere. Now he patted his
horses side, Now he gazed at the landscape far
and near, Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth But
mostly he watched with eager search The belfry
tower of the Old North Church,

As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely
and spectral and somber and still. And lo! as he
looks, on the belfrys height A glimmer, and
then a gleam of light! He springs to the saddle,
the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till
full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry
burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in
the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath,
from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out
by a steed flying fearless and fleet That was
all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night And
the spark struck out by that steed, in his
flight, Kindled the land into flame with its
heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides And
under the alders that skirt its edge, Now soft
on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the
tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock When he
crossed the bridge into Medford town. He heard
the crowing of the cock, And the barking of the
farmers dog, And felt the damp of the river
fog, That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock, When he
galloped into Lexington. He saw the gilded
weathercock Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they
already stood aghast At the bloody work they
would look upon.

It was two by the village clock, When he came to
the bridge in Concord town. He heard the
bleating of the flock, And the twitter of birds
among the trees, And felt the breath of the
morning breeze Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed Who at
the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day
would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket
ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled, How
the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind
each fence and farmyard wall, Chasing the
redcoats down the lane, Then crossing the fields
to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of
the road, And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere And so
through the night went his cry of alarm To every
Middlesex village and farm, A cry of defiance,
and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a
knock at the door, And a word that shall echo
for evermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last, In the
hour of darkness and peril and need, The people
will waken and listen to hear The hurrying
hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight
message of Paul Revere.

19
Does it sound familiar ?

The poem itself, have you heard it before?
Was the history familiar?
Did you hear the Iambic pentameter ?
Was all of the history correct ?

Does the author use the sounds of our language to
create interest in his story?

21
Onomatopoeia

Does the author use the sound of words to tell
his story?

22
Assonance

Does the author use words in sequence or in close
proximity which have the same internal vowel
sound?

Does the author use descriptions and comparisons
to create pictures in the readers mind?

24
Imagery

Does the author create snapshots of images in the
mind of the reader for the sake of enhancing
meaning, creating setting or mood, or developing
character?
Does he show things to the reader rather than
simply telling him about them?

25
Simile

Does the author use the words like or as in
making comparisons between two or more things?

26
Personification

Does the author represent inanimate objects as
being lifelike or human?

27
Metaphor

Does the author make comparisons of objects or
things without the use of the words like or
as?

Does the author use the characters and events in
his story to communicate a theme that goes beyond
them in some way?

29
Allusion

Does the author refer to other works of
literature, historical events, works of art, or
well know ideas in his work?

30
Symbolism

Does the author use any objects, persons,
pictures or things to represent an idea, a virtue
or a philosophy in the story?
For example, darkness may be used to represent
wickedness. Light may be used to represent truth
and goodness.

Many believe Longfellows account of the Midnight
Ride is inaccurate because he portrays Revere as
a lone rider alerting the colonists.
Longfellow also fails to mention that Revere was
captured by British soldiers before he reached
Concord.
However, the literary creation of a folk hero
named Paul Revere was inspiring to many, and the
poem still reminds people of all ages what it
means to be a patriot.

On his way to Lexington, Revere stopped at each
house to spread the word that the British troops
would soon be arriving.
Sometime around midnight, Revere arrived at the
house of Reverend Jonas Clark, where Hancock and
Adams were staying, and gave them his message.
Soon after Reveres message was delivered,
another horseman sent on a different route by Dr.
Warren, William Dawes, arrived.
Revere and Dawes decided that they would continue
on to Concord, Massachusetts, where the local
militia had stockpiled weapons and other supplies
for battle.
Dr. Samuel Prescott, a third rider, joined
Revere and Dawes.

On their way to Concord, the three were arrested
by a patrol of British officers. Prescott and
Dawes escaped almost immediately, but Revere was
held and questioned at gunpoint.
He was released after being taken to Lexington.
Revere then went to the aid of Hancock and Adams,
whom he helped escape the coming siege.
He then went to a tavern with another man, Mr.
Lowell, to retrieve a trunk of documents
belonging to Hancock.

At 500 a.m., as Revere and his associate emerged
from the tavern, they saw the approaching British
troops and heard the first shot of the battle
fired on the Lexington Green.
This gunshot of unknown origin, which caused the
British troops to fire on the colonists, is known
as "the shot heard round the world."

35
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February
27, 1807 in Portland, Maine.
He was first enrolled in school at the age of
three, and he had a love for literature early in
his life.
His father wanted him to become a lawyer, but
Longfellow wanted to pursue his literary
interests.

He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825, and
was offered a position as the first professor of
modern languages at Bowdoin.
Longfellow accepted this offer, and began
teaching in 1829, following an educational trip
to Europe where he visited scholars in Spain,
Italy, England, France and Germany.
He created his own textbooks while teaching at
Bowdoin, because, at the time, no others were
available.
He went on to teach at Harvard, Oxford and
Cambridge.

He resigned from Harvard in 1854 in order to
dedicate all of his time to his writing.
Some of Longfellows most popular works (The Song
of Hiawatha and The Courtship of Miles Standish)
were written during the years after he left
Harvard.

Longfellow was awarded honorary degrees by both
the University of Oxford and the University of
Cambridge.
He is considered to be the first professional
poet in America and his later works, including
Paul Reveres Ride (1860), reflect his desire to
establish an American Mythos.

39
Grant Wood (1892-1942)

Born in 1891 in Anamosa, Iowa. He studied at the
Art Institute of Chicago in 1912 and at the
Academie Julian in Paris around 1920, and upon
his return to Iowa began seriously painting. Wood
was part of a group of American artists call the
Regionalists who deliberately turned their backs
on progressive European art of the 1930s and its
abstract tendencies, choosing instead to depict
in realistic style their native Midwestern world
and the lives of ordinary people. His crisp,
liner style was influenced by early Flemmish
painting that he saw when he was in Europe in the
1920s.

40
Grant Wood

42
Grant Wood 1892-1942

Wood is probably best know for his painting,
American Gothic c. 1930 painted just one year
before Midnight Ride which dignifies a homely
country couple on an ordinary Iowa farm.

44
Woods Training

Although he trained as an artist, Wood was a
self-consciously primitive painter who emulated
the unpretentious, unschooled manner of American
folk artists.
This is a straightforward style that rejects any
detail or artifice that might divert attention
from the principal subject.

45
The Midnight Ride

Goes one step further to capture a childs point
of view.
A birds-eye perspective (like that of an
airplane) allows us to survey a vast sweep of
countryside and give the New England village the
ordered clarity of a town made of toys.

46
Check it out .

The country church and surrounding houses are
simple geometric shapes, as though constructed of
building blocks.
The trees are crowned with perfect green spheres,
like those of a child would try to draw.

47
Check it out .

Wood makes no attempt to be either historically
accurate, for instance, are far too bright to be
lit by candles,
Or scientifically accurate moonlight
illuminating the foreground scene is
preternaturally brilliant, casting long, seep
shadows on the road like a spotlight focused on
the main event.

Rolling landscape beyond is left sleeping in a
darkness that is broken only by tiny glimmers
from faraway windows.
To complete this evocation of a childhood dream,
Wood whimsically portrays Paul Reveres trusty
steed flying fearless and fleet, in
Longfellows words as a Rocking horse.

When this painting was made, some thought that
Wood was making fun of the beloved American
legend.
In fact, Woods attention was just the opposite.
His aim, Wood said, was to save those bits of
American folklore that are too good to lose.

50
Woods Goal

This preservation tendency was part of his
greater scheme to forge a national identity,
which he believed could be created though art as
well as history.
Longfellow attempted to achieve the same thing
through his poetry.

51
Woods goal is supported by

Longfellows lines
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the Midnight message of Paul Revere.

Woods mission took on added urgency during the
great Depression, when Midnight Ride of Paul
Revere was painted.
The image of the United States as a young and
vibrant nation was beginning to lose its luster

At the same time, American art was losing its
traditional association with ordinary life as
younger artists exchanged regional subjects and
traditions for more cosmopolitan, largely
abstract styles emerging from Paris and New York.

Grant Wood struggled against the tide, committed
to his dream of a truly American art that would
link the present to the past and preserve all the
stories that made up the American heritage.
Seen as a satirist when American Gothic first
appeared, Wood had refashioned himself by the
mid-1930s as an outspoken celebrant of the
heartland and of healthy, "native" art.

55
Spring in Town

56
New Road

58
The Perfectionist

59
The Good Influence

60
Grant Woods House

61
American Gothic

62
Daughters of the Revolution

63
Grant Wood Self Portrait

65
Cherry Tree, c. 1939

66
Woman with Plant

67
Appraisal

68
Spring in the Country

69
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

70
Woods first sale

71
Truck Garden Moret "

72
The Horse traders

73
QUIZ QUESTIONS

Who was considered the
first professional poet in America ?

74
Quiz Question 2

Even though this painter was classically trained
at the Chicago Art Institute, he is considered a
primitive painter who emulated the
unpretentious, unschooled manner of American folk
art.
Who was he?

75
Question 3