The Daily Scholar: Next Line, Please

Next Line, Please

Each Tuesday, our readers contribute a new line of verse—or a completed poem—in collaboration with a renowned poet.

THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” is a jaunty, oft-quoted poem ingrained in the minds of most American schoolchildren. This is one of the main reasons, according to Jill Lepore, that Longfellow has been consistently ignored by literary scholars: “for a poet’s … reputation, to be read by children—and especially to be loved by children—is the sweet, sloppy kiss of death.” In our Spring 2011 issue, Lepore investigated the historical and literary merits of this 19th-century poem, published the same month South Carolina seceded from the United States. At the time, “Paul Revere’s Ride” was as much a clarion call for northerners to fight slavery as it was about the American Revolution.

Next Line, Please

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