Posted on 04/18/2016 9:15:34 AM PDT by harpygoddess
Paul Revere gets all of the credit, but he never actually finished that famous ride, and in fact warned the British that the Americans were coming. William Dawes and Samuel Prescott were left out of the poem and subsequently most elementary history books: it was actually Samuel Prescott who completed the midnight ride.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
When I read this comment, I figured that he was giving information that would cause problems for the British. Changes of orders, confusion, not knowing where the danger would be. Many of the heavier weapons were in village armories, not in private hands, and had to be distributed with some advance warning. Young Sybil probably grew to strength as being the oldest of all those children and a big help to mom and dad.
Regarding the poem, Paul Revere was well known as a silversmith and businessman. I had not heard of the others. Also his name fits in well with the popular Iambic Pentameter of poetry and the -vere ends on an up note of optimistic sound. Samuel Prescott does not have a good poetic rhythm, and -scott ends on a pessimistic down note. Just say the two names several times and see which one you could put more easily into a rhyming poem.
While on the subject, I tried to read the book “The Fort” which is concerned with the largest US Navy defeat until Pearl Harbor. The battle took place in 1779 at Penobscot bay .
Paul Revere is depicted as a pretty much worthless Lt Col commanding the artillery.
Having no knowledge of Paul Revere beyond his ride and his silver work, I wonder how accurate the depiction is
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One of these days it will be on Final Jeopardy.
No need to apologize! Thank you for the ping. :-)
Nah, use Occam’s Razor. The reason Longfellow used Revere instead of Dawes or Prescott is that you can’t find any words to rhyme with Dawes or Prescott.
The country—and Longfellow—wasn’t ready for free verse yet.
Dawes is tricky. But Prescott has rhymes
How far we have fallen
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