Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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 to-day 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.
On July 4, 1837, American Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson composed the Concord Hymn to commemorate the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battle of the American Revolution.
While all of us can connect to this moment because it gave birth to our new nation, Emerson had family and personal ties, as well. His grandfather, William Emerson, was the minister of the Concord church, and he was an eyewitness. Emerson’s home, the Old Manse, overlooked the battlefield and the Concord River.
It’s a moving poem, whose devices and images should inspire us to this day to revere our country and recognize the immense sacrifice of farmers, blacksmiths, and humble colonial men who stood up to tyranny, asserted their rights as Englishmen, and forced a new country in the end.
In true Transcendental form, Emerson transforms the first bullet fired in the battle of Lexington and Concord into an eternal harbinger. Emerson invokes the Spirit of America, the American citizen, and the restless rustics who defeated the British Empire and beat out a path of freedom for the future. The legacy of individual liberty under the rule of law, which the British Empire neglected and then violated, animated our forefathers to demand redress for grievances from the Mother Country. When she refused, the colonists fought for their freedom and for a new country.
The first symbol of the hymn centers on the “flag to April’s breeze unfurled.” Our American banner of rebellion and revelation serves today as the signal to the world that the order of tyranny gave way to liberty. The “embattled farmers” were not sowing seed, but shedding blood, with their first shot “heard round the world.”
And it was a shot. Not a mere shout.
The mythic history of the Americas starts with the Columbian proposition that the world is round, and now, “round the world,” New World fires away at the Old World. Another symbol connects tradition to truth, a timely action to a timeless legacy; the bridge that the Concord farmers crossed bore witness to their refusal to let the natural order of power and hierarchy diminish their righteous call for liberty.
The bridge “arched the flood.” The arch represents the technological advances of centuries past, the wisdom of ancient men, which bolsters man’s desire to be free from the forces of fallen nature. “Flood” suggests the great flood in Noah’s day. Which wiped away the sons of God who slept with the women of this earth. The mighty progeny who menaced the earth so displeased God that He reached out to the last man, one who found grace in his sight. God bore him and his family above the floods. The waters washed away the wickedness of an old, corrupt order for renewal, much like the Americans did with the British Empire.
From the all-noticed “shot” that awoke the world to a new order, in which imperial giants fall before free men, the second stanza identifies “The foe long since in silence slept.” Emerson defines the Enemy in vague terms, denouncing every subduing power seeking to subvert the proper substance of man: his free spirit.
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
Despite dispirited early days of the American Revolution, colonial forces rebuffed the Empire’s attempt to empty the American colonists of their rights. “The conqueror silent sleeps,” no longer having to guard their hard-fought freedom. Instead, the poet longs for a harder ground for the memory of what they did.
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
Not the Spirit of Liberty, but the force of time has ravaged the same “bridge.” The means of victory have disappeared, so the poet sings of the farmers who fired back so no one forgets. “The dark stream” can remind us of the inevitable oblivion of man’s memory. Yet the next generation can prevent this loss and withstand the force of Time, just as the American colonists resisted tyranny.
Time wears, Nature works, but we can withstand both to remember those Farmers and their heritage which made our country.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
The green banks and soft streams are novel, yet constant, eternal and enduring. Emerson wants us to treat our history of Independence with the same reverence.
Not a flag, not a bridge, but a stone of remembrance will stand in place to stop the eroding forces, similar to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, which established twelve such markers to remind the Israelites that their forefathers left Egypt to enter the Promised Land. No bridges were needed then, and for the writer of the Concord Hymn, instead of a bridge, a votive stone reminds the people what the Concord farmers did.
“Deed” and “Redeem” with cutting assonance, command our attention, and every historical marker seeks to do the same with every event.
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.
The American Spirit inspired the farmers who fired “the shot heard round the world.” They “dared to die”; not just for themselves, but for their children. Let us commit to the same future.
On Independence Day, let us honor those farmers who withstood the British Empire, firing the shot that unleashed a new world. Following seven years of setbacks, near-misses, and finally consummate victories, the American colonists created the United States of America.
Though some suggest that America, the City on the Hill, has dimmed, they should remember that all it took to ignite the fight for liberty was “one shot heard round the world.”
Let us leave the “Concord Hymn” with this parting thought.
It was a Shot, not a Shout, that the world heard. Shouts are easy to drown out—consider the October Revolution, the Nuremberg Laws, and Tiananmen Square. A bullet cannot be so easily ignored, but rather can overthrow the despot and the enemy.
It was a Shot, not a Shrug. The farmers risked their lives when their rights were at stake. They didn’t complain then retreat to their little farms.
It was a Shot, not a Shower. The fight for freedom is not easy, and the fundamental right to keep and bear arms ensured that the founders of the United States endured as a free country, not a vassal state of declining tyranny.
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