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April 18, 2025

How a Portland-born poet helped revive the legend of Paul Revere's ride

Peter Van Allen Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was born in Portland and is commemorated at Fort Allen Park on Portland's Eastern Promenade.
By Peter Van Allen

Today marks the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous ride to warn countrymen near Boston about the British plan of attack. 

The anniversary will be marked by a range of events throughout Maine. (See info box below.)

Today, the first two lines of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about Paul Revere's ride are well known:

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere ...

Maine ties

Longfellow (1807-1882) was born in Portland and lived much of his early life at 489 Congress St. (now a historic site). He attended college in Maine, at Bowdoin, at the same time as author Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

By 1860, Longfellow was a well-known poet living in Cambridge, Mass., at 105 Brattle St. near Harvard Square. In April 1860, he happened to take a visit to the Old North Church in Boston's North End, climbing the church tower he heard the story of Paul Revere's ride. 

It was there, on the night of April 18-19, 1775, that Robert Newman and John Pulling hung the lanterns to signal to Revere that the British were invading by water. Today, we are familiar with the phrase, "One if by land, two if by sea."

Longfellow was moved to write about Paul Revere's ride. At the time, on the eve of the Civil War, few were thinking of the American Revolution. The heroes of the war were largely forgotten.

As he writes in the poem, "Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year."

At around the same time, an artist with Maine ties, Winslow Homer, visited George Washington's former estate, Mount Vernon, and found it rotting away. In a watercolor, he depicted the grounds of Mount Vernon as overgrown. The house itself was shown with several of the panes in the grand Palladian window broken.

Some eight decades after formation of the United States, Longfellow created an anthem of sorts to commemorate a historic night, which has been cited as the start of the Revolution and the beginnings of independence from the British crown. 

"Paul Revere's Ride" was published in the Atlantic magazine in early 1861. While critics quibbled with Longfellow for taking liberty with some of the historic facts — for instance, neither Newman nor Pulling were named, and Longfellow referred to a "friend" who was to light the lanterns — the poem was credited with reviving interest in the Revolution. 

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm ...

Events

“Two Lights for Tomorrow” April 18 Events

Augusta (Maine State Capitol)

11:30 a.m. press conference at Hall of Flags with Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and excerpts of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, "Paul Revere’s Ride," read by Maine’s Poet Laureate Julia Bouwsma
7:30 p.m. Capitol Park lighting

Castine

Lanterns in John and Phebe Perkins House (ca. 1763-1783, 111 Perkins St.)

Falmouth

Lights at the Falmouth Historical Society, Falmouth Town Hall, Falmouth Congregational Church, Emmaus Lutheran Church and OceanView at Falmouth 

Gorham

Gorham Historical Society will hold a lighting at First Parish Church and ring the Paul Revere bell

Hampden

Hampden Garden Club  potluck, reading of "Paul Revere’s Ride," story sharing, music, and other activities at Harmony Hall

7:30 p.m. ringing of the Paul Revere bell and lantern lighting.

Orrington

Lanterns in the Town Hall cupola 
Lanterns in individual homes

Portland

Lights at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House
Lights at Maine Historical Society
Spirits Alive at Eastern Cemetery
7 p.m. reading of "Paul Revere’s Ride" and lighting
Saturday, April 19 special tour of Eastern Cemetery featuring Revolutionary War graves.

Presque Isle

Lights at City Hall
Lights at Presque Isle Historical Society

South Portland

6 p.m. bell ringing at Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse 

Thomaston 

Lighting and ringing of Paul Revere Bell at the Henry Knox Museum

Winterport

7 p.m. lighting at the Union Meeting House and a reading of "Paul Revere’s Ride"
 

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