Reimagining Paul Revere’s ride to address Trump-era threats
A new play brings into high relief the uncanny parallels between both the Revolutionary and Civil War periods and the perilous present, all through the lens of Longfellow’s poem.
Generations of Americans are familiar with the galloping rhythms of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” commemorating the events at Lexington and Concord that ignited the American Revolution. All together now:
Listen my children, and you will hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
What fewer people realize is that the poem is not so much a nostalgic retelling of the Revolutionary War as a dire portent of the then-coming Civil War.
Generations of Americans are familiar with the galloping rhythms of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” commemorating the events at Lexington and Concord that ignited the American Revolution. All together now:
Listen my children, and you will hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
What fewer people realize is that the poem is not so much a nostalgic retelling of the Revolutionary War as a dire portent of the then-coming Civil War.
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| Reimagining Paul Revere’s ride to address Trump-era threats Detail from a painting by Robert Reid of Paul Revere's April 1775 ride "Longfellow, a staunch abolitionist, wrote the poem during the presidential campaign of 1860", |
(Perhaps the only period in American history more divided than our own.)
Abraham Lincoln won that election against Stephen Douglas and two other candidates with just under 40 percent of the popular vote, and without carrying a single Southern state. By late December, when Longfellow’s poem was published in The Atlantic Monthly magazine, South Carolina had seceded from the union.
So, as Longfellow writes, “in the hour of peril and darkness and need,” the people must be roused anew to battle for the country’s ideals.
Now the group Writers for Democratic Action has reimagined Longfellow’s poem, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the shot heard ‘round the world. Beginning Saturday, professional actors and ordinary citizens alike will perform free staged readings of a new one-act play, “Paul Revere Resists,” which brings into high relief the uncanny parallels between both the Revolutionary and Civil War periods and the perilous present, all through the lens of this deceptively simple rhyme.
Now the group Writers for Democratic Action has reimagined Longfellow’s poem, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the shot heard ‘round the world. Beginning Saturday, professional actors and ordinary citizens alike will perform free staged readings of a new one-act play, “Paul Revere Resists,” which brings into high relief the uncanny parallels between both the Revolutionary and Civil War periods and the perilous present, all through the lens of this deceptively simple rhyme.
“I’m astounded by the power of reading it in light of our own moment,” said coauthor James Carroll, who wrote the script for “Paul Revere Resists” with other WDA members. “It’s a perfect way to stamp the universe of Lexington and Concord with fresh meaning.”
The play is intentionally bare-bones, with a small cast and no props or costumes, meant to be shared in living rooms, church halls, and community centers as a way to muster resolve against President Trump’s escalating threats to democracy. A planned performance at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater may be more polished, but the one in Texas staged by the group Mothers Against Greg Abbott (yes, MAGA) won’t be any less heartfelt.
The script casts a wide net over current assaults on American values, with appearances by a terrified immigrant, a foreign aid recipient, a research scientist losing federal grants, and one of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency storm troopers. But “Paul Revere Resists” really soars when it pivots to reciting the actual text of the Declaration of Independence. Several counts in the colonists’ indictment of their king — from obstructing “the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws” to “obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners” to transporting colonists “beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses” — are chilling echoes of Trump’s recent actions.
“One of the problems of our moment is that we lack the language to explain to ourselves and each other what we’re experiencing with Donald Trump,” said Carroll, “and lo and behold, the language is right there in the Declaration of Independence.”
The performances are also meant to strike a blow for history, which Trump is doing his utmost to rewrite, threatening and defunding repositories of American memory from the Smithsonian Institution to the Museum of African American History right here in Boston.
Trump's executive order of March 27 (called, with no apparent irony, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”) instructs the Secretary of the Interior to return to their supposed glory any monuments that have been “removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history” and rid them of “any improper partisan ideology.” Trump has also slashed funding for the National Park Service, which operates the very site of the historic North Bridge in Concord.
In New England, we refer to the celebrations of America’s founding as Patriots Day. But what does it mean to be a patriot at a time when, as one character in the play puts it, “it feels dangerous just to lift up basic American values”? The long unfurling of 250th anniversary celebrations leading to July 4, 2026, is a fine opportunity to reclaim patriotism from its more jingoistic partisans and reconnect it to the ideals of freedom, equality, and the rule of law upon which the nation was established.
On Friday April 18th evening,the bells at Old North Church will sound in commemoration of an event that took place 250 years ago. Let’s hope an aroused populace will heed the alarms ringing as loudly today.
Renée Loth’s column appears regularly in the Globe.
In New England, we refer to the celebrations of America’s founding as Patriots Day. But what does it mean to be a patriot at a time when, as one character in the play puts it, “it feels dangerous just to lift up basic American values”? The long unfurling of 250th anniversary celebrations leading to July 4, 2026, is a fine opportunity to reclaim patriotism from its more jingoistic partisans and reconnect it to the ideals of freedom, equality, and the rule of law upon which the nation was established.
On Friday April 18th evening,the bells at Old North Church will sound in commemoration of an event that took place 250 years ago. Let’s hope an aroused populace will heed the alarms ringing as loudly today.
Renée Loth’s column appears regularly in the Globe.
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