Children's Poem

Poem

Title: Paul Revere’s Ride

Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Illustrator: Nancy Winslow Parker

Publisher: Mulberry

Publication Date: 1985

ISBN: 0-688-123-87-2








In this edition of Paul Revere’s Ride, the illustrator, Nancy Winslow Parker, also wrote a brief introductory essay that sets the scene for Paul Revere’s famous ride.  She gives a brief history lesson about what was happening in Boston in 1775.  She describes the siege of Boston, and that the British troops marched  to Concord because they believed the rebels had stored weapons there.  Paul Revere and several of his friends rode  to Lexington to  warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that they were about to be arrested.  Nancy Winslow Parker explains the poem sounds like Paul Revere rode all the way out to Concord, but he actually only went as far as Lexington. That is a good example of poetic license. Ms. Parker also drew a  map showing the route of the ride from Boston to Lexington, then from Lexington to Concord. 

The poem starts out like so: “ 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. ”  There is an illustration of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow reciting his poem on this page.  The book is laid out in an easy to follow pattern.  Each page of the book contains  a paragraph of the poem and an illustration that accompanies the words. The illustrations are simple, and are drawn in a cartoon-like style.  In some ways this book looks like a graphic novel with small cartoon  illustrations and a few lines of text on each page.  The illustrations are very effective in enhancing the poem.

 I really like this poem, and there is some excitement in it:

“Up the trembling ladder, steep and tall, to the highest window in the wall, where he paused to listen and look down  A moment on the roofs of the town, and the moonlight flowing overall.

It has some great lines like: “The fate of a nation was riding that night”
And
“ A cry of defiance and not of fear, a voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, and a word that shall echo forever more.”  

This book with the colorful illustrations from Nancy Winslow Parker really brings the poem to life.  There are some words that might be hard for students to understand, but the pictures make it easier to get the meaning. 
This would be a good read aloud for elementary and middle school students learning about the Revolutionary War. It would also be fun to read on April 18th in any social studies class, just to remind of what happened on that date.
 I give this book five out of five stars, it is a good way to expose children to a classic poem that they probably would not enjoy if they read on  their own.  But in the context of a history lesson and as a read aloud by the teacher, it would be a lot of fun.