26 April 2013

The Shot Heard Round the World

238 years ago, on the night of April 18, 1775, British troops made an attempt at gun control by trying to take away the arms of the Colonial American - provoking the American militiaman and resulting in the battles of Lexington and Concord. The beginning of the fight for American independence had begun. This is memorialized in Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem:  Concord Hymn written in 1837.

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Concord Hymn
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 place with joy 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.

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