{"id":951,"date":"2009-04-06T22:17:07","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T05:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/?p=951"},"modified":"2010-06-25T02:38:56","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T06:38:56","slug":"poem-6-concord-hymn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/06\/poem-6-concord-hymn\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem 6: “Concord Hymn”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today would have been my grandfather’s 94th birthday. He passed away November 2006<\/a>, and it wasn’t until the funeral that I heard some of the stories of his time in the U.S. Navy during World War II. I knew that he was in Panama for part of his service, but I didn’t know that his ship was the escort for the ship that carried the bomb that was dropped on on Hiroshima.<\/p>\n

I chose a patriotic sort of poem in his honor, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s "Concord Hymn"<\/a>:<\/p>\n

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
\n     Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;
\nHere once the embattled farmers stood;
\n     And fired the shot heard round the world.
\n 
\nThe foe long since in silence slept;
\n     Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
\n     And Time the ruined bridge has swept
\n     Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
\n 
\nOn this green bank, by this soft stream,
\n     We place with joy a votive stone,
\nThat memory may their deeds redeem,
\n     When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
\n 
\nO Thou who made those heroes dare
\n     To die, and leave their children free, —
\nBid Time and Nature gently spare
\n     The shaft we raised to them and Thee.<\/p>\n

It’s a nicely patriotic little poem that fits my grandfather’s outlook on the world. Besides, I can trace a direct connection from myself through my grandfather to the poem. I am related to Ralph Waldo Emerson, through my great-great-grandmother Anne Emerson, Ralph’s third cousin.<\/p>\n

If Wikipedia’s entry on the poem<\/a> can believed, "One source of [the poem’s] power may be the author’s personal ties to the subject. Emerson’s grandfather was at the bridge on the day of the battle; their family home, The Old Manse, is next to the bridge; and Emerson is known to have written the hymn while living there."<\/p>\n

It’s a fitting memorial then—a poem for my grandfather, written by my distant cousin to honor his grandfather. And if that wikifact isn’t 100% correct, don’t tell me. I like it better this way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today would have been my grandfather’s 94th birthday. He passed away November 2006, and it wasn’t until the funeral that I heard some of the stories of his time in the U.S. Navy during World War II. I knew that he was in Panama for part of his service, but I didn’t know that his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,14],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american","category-poetry","tag-emerson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-fl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}