Concord Hymn

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

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 today 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.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American Transcendentalist poet, essayist, preacher, and philosopher, written for the dedication of a monument to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775.