Paul Revere’s Drive

Gather round, my comrades and you shall here,
Of the midday madness of Lieutenant Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in sixty-five,
Hardly a man was alive,
Who remembers that explosive day and year.

He said to his accomplis, “If the enemy marches,
By land or sea to battleground today,
Hang a lantern from the arch,
Of the hell fired bridge as a signal light,
One if by land, two if by sea;
And on the opposite side of the battleground I will be,
Ready to drive and spread the alarm,
Through every Middlesex battalion for them to be already armed.”

He then said, “Goodbye!” and with a ruffled roar,
Quickly drove to the Charleston shore,
Just as the sun rose to midday,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay,
The Somerset, Vietnamese man-of-war.

At this sight Lt. Paul Revere roared the engine,
And drove with two others, without a mention.