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 sweptDown 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 dareTo die, and leave their children
free, Bid Time and Nature gently spareThe shaft we raise to them and
thee.
American Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, in true Transcendental form, takes the first bullet fired from the battle of Lexington and Concord, the one event into the eternal world changer. Invoking a religious sentiment, Emerson titles his ballad “Concord Hymn”. Dispensing with the Eastern mystical fantasies of “Brahma”, Emerson calls on another “Spirit”, this one the Spirit of America, the individual, restless rustic beat which beat out the British and beat out a path for freedom into the future. The legacy of individual liberty under the rule of law, which the British Empire neglected then violated, this spirit animated the colonists to demand redress for grievances, then split from the Mother Country altogether. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American Revolution sparked a spirit of individual liberty resisting imperial tyranny, a movement which inspired rebellion in Europe, Latin America, and even Vietnam (though not with the same results).
The symbol waving over the poem and wafting the sense of freedom centers on the “flag to April’s breeze unfurled.” The banner of rebellion and revelation, the signal to the world that one order was dying and another was breaking forth. April is the first month of Spirit, the month of renewal and rebirth, a spirited time in which rapid yet imperceptible changes transform the cold, barren earth into a revived paradise of farming and plenty. The “embattled farmers” are not sowing seed, but shedding blood, with their first shot “heard round the world.” The mythic history of the Americas starts with the Columbian proposition that the world is round, and now “round the world” the New World fires off and dismisses the Old World which first discovered them. Another symbol connect tradition to truth, a timely action to a timeless legacy, the bridge which the Concord farmers crossed bore witness to their refusal to let the natural order of power and heirarchy diminish their eternal yearnings 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 and decay. “Flood” suggests the great flood recorded in the Old Testament, an event which every religion describes in their separate cosmologies. The flood in Noah’s day wiped away the sons of God who slept with the women of this earth. The might progency who menaced the earth so dipleased God that he reached out to the last man, one who found grace in his sight, and God bore him and his family above the floods. The waters washed away the wickedness of an old, corrupt order, much like the British Empire of the late 1700’s.
From the all-noticed “shot” that awoke the world to a new order of imperial giants cowering in fear before individual man, the second stanza identifies “The foe long since in silence slept.” The poet maintains the Enemy of the “embattled farmers” in vague terms, embracing not just the British Empire, but every power which uses its force to subdue and subverty the proper substance of man, his free will manifested in his spirit.
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
Weak and dispirited early in the fighting, the American forces rebuffed the efforts of empire to empty the American colonists of their liberty, from Yorktown the the Treaty of Paris . “The conqueror silent sleeps”, no longer having to guard their hard-fought freedom. Instead, the poet longs for a harder gurd for the memory of what they did. And Time the ruined bridge has sweptDown the dark stream which seaward creeps.
Not the Spirit of Liberty, but the force of time has ravaged the same “arched” bridge. The means of victory has disappeared, and for that reason the poet sings of the glory of the farmers who fired back at an evil power. “The dark stream” reminds one of the inevitable oblivion of man’s memory, one which drags the greatest of achievements into a greater sea of lost accomplishments. Yet this loss, because it “creeps” away, permits the next generation to withstand the force of Time, just as the American colonists resisted the Mother Country. The Battle of Lexington and Concord
Time has had its effect, then Nature does its work. 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.
“Green banks” and “soft streams” conjure up transitions and transitoriness, two novel foes who may sweep away the long-standing victories of the American forces. Not a flag, not a bridge, but a stone of remembrance will rest in place against these eroding forces, a marker which the ancient Hebrews called Eben-Ezer. The Twelve Tribes of Israel established twelve such markers to remind the Israelites that their forefathers left Egypt to enter the Promised Land, yet no before they had crossed the Red Sea and then the Jordan, where the Lord had divided the waters for them. No bridges were needed then, and for the writer of the Concord Hymn, instead of bridge, a votive stone of accomplishment and request, reminding people what the Concord farmers did, and pleading with future members not to forget.
“Deed” and “Redeem” carry on the same vowel, and every historical marker seeks to do the same with every event, taking the work and enhancing its value, buying it back from oblivion to remind future generations of their debt. Spirit, that made those heroes dareTo die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spareThe shaft we raise to them and thee.
There is a “Spirit” which animated the farmers who fired “the shot heard round the world.” They “dared to die” because they cared to “leave ther children free.” “Leave” suggests calm without disruption from other people. “Free” will carry the sense of “no restraint from the state” and “no cost from the state.” The cost for this freedom was precious, though.
This Spirit, the memory as well as the mission of these men, has the power to put aside not just Empires, not just the former orders of man oppressing man, but Time and Nature, too; the ravages of decay and the common regeneration may rival the witness of triumphs true and hard-won, but the poet still commands the same Spirit for spectators “Now” to reflect on “Then”.
So, on Independence Day — and any day — let us reflect on what took place over two centuries ago, when individual farmers withstood the tyranny of the British Empire, and after seven years of defeats, near-misses, and consummate victories, the American colonists created the United States of America.
Though the world may fear that the City on the Hill’s light has dimmed, they should also remember that all it took to reignite the fight for liberty was “one shot heard round the world”.