My mother made me learn The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere when I was about six years old. Not an imposition, really. My mind has always been kind of a sinkhole for doggerel verse, and better Longfellow than this. It was years later before I learned that the whole thing is a pack of lies. But it isn't supposed to be true; you don't expect truth from Longfellow, any more than you do from Parson ("cherry tree") Weems or Oliver (just about every mad fantasy in the language) Stone. So I say give Sarah a bye one this one. If she wants to tell us that we are coming to warn the British about their second amendment rights, God bless her. You might want to ask her, though, who she thinks is the ninth freest economy in the world.
Afterthought Ever one to press her luck, my mother also made me learn this, so I was a natural for a multipolar world.
No comments:
Post a Comment