RALPH WALDO EMERSON
In this elegant tribute to the citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary War, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) penned the famous phrase “the shot heard round the world.” He wrote this poem—sung as a hymn at a July 4, 1837, ceremony to mark the completion of the Concord Monument in Massachusetts—to remember the valiant resistance of American Minutemen to British forces on April 19, 1775.
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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, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.