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.

 He said to                            his friend, "If the British march
 By land or                            sea from the town to-night,
 Hang a lantern                            aloft in the belfry arch
 Of the North                            Church tower as a signal light,--
 One if by                            land, and two if by sea;

 And I on                            the opposite shore will be,
 Ready to ride                            and spread the alarm
 Through every Middlesex                            village and farm,
 For the country                            folk to be up and to arm."