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 oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore Just as the moon rose over the bay Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset British of war man
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
