Ms. Heredia
ENG10
NOTES on the ROMANTIC NATURE
of PAUL REVERE’S RIDE
Notes on how our five romantic characteristics
apply to Paul Revere´s ride.
Q2: 2014-15
“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.”
COMMON MAN:
Most depictions of historical victories are often romanticized. But what makes this poem’s depiction of a
historical event specifically “romantic” lies in Longfellow’s emphasis on the common man as hero.
Apart from the fact that Longfellow chooses a common man like Paul Revere as his central hero, also
presented as heroic in his story are the various common villagers that participate in the story’s climactic
victory. But what makes his heroic depiction of these villagers even more “romantic” is his choice to
refer to them as farmers.
By portraying these heroic Americans as average farmers – farmers who manage to “chase” out the
cowardly “red-coats” – what Longfellow is actually doing is borrowing the old tradition (started by
people like Crevecoeur and Jefferson) of using the virtuous- American-farmer as a metaphor for the
average American.
INDIVIDUALITY:
Another important romantic characteristic we see in Paul Revere's Ride is the importance it is places on
the power of the individual.
By attributing a national victory to the actions and decisions of a single individual -- a regular American´s
stubborn refusal to yield to the British – not only is Longfellow highlighting the American romantic belief
in individuality. More specifically, he is highlighting the transcendental beliefs in intuition over reason, in
self-reliance over conformity.
One particularly good example of this appears near the end of the poem, when Revere’s warning from
town to town is described as “a cry of defiance and not of fear.” Rather than have Revere engage in
defiance quietly and secretly, Longfellow chooses to emphasize Revere´s non-conformity by choosing to
have him do so loudly and unabashedly.
NOSTALGIA:
Another example of the poem´s romanticism is in its nostalgic memory of a past event. One good
example of this is in the opening. Notice that this is not a poem told by Paul Revere. It is a poem told by
an unknown narrator 100 years after Revere’s time – by a proud American nostalgically perpetuating the
myth of an American historical figure. Remember that when we say American Romantic writers were
"nostalgic about the past," the emphasis is especially on America's historical past, as a nation.
IMAGINATION & ESCAPISM
While the event depicted in the poem is indeed based on history, many elements of the event have
been altered. By starting the poem off with the tone of someone telling a legend, Longfellow is
consciously highlighting the mythical and legendary nature of this event. Part of what makes the poem
"romantic” is its overt mystification and idealization of a historical event; its explicit inclusion of
imagined details the help the reader imagine and escape to a supposedly “greater” past.
NATURE:
A final example of how the poem is romantic lies in Longfellow's depiction of nature. But what exactly
makes his depiction of nature romantic?
First, try considering how romantics thought of nature. Remember that the Puritan’s thoughts of nature
as mainly evil, and that the Romantics saw nature as a source of spirituality in a greater sense: as a
source of both good (divine) as well as bad (evil).
Then, try to find examples in the poem's imagery, tone, and/or diction that reveal this view about
nature. When looking for examples of nature in the poem, make sure to go beyond in your response,
and to consider (A) how nature is being depicted (via imagery personification etc.), and (B) how this
depiction of nature is specifically “romantic”.
One example of a romantic depiction of nature in Longfellow’s poem is his personification of various
animate and inanimate things, such as wind. When Longfellow, in the sixth stanza, has the night-wind
whisper "all is well", his personification of the wind is romantic because in doing so he portrays nature
as a helpful (even divine) agent that participates in Paul Revere’s heroic and noble victory.