We'd sometimes recite...

We'd sometimes recite 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the van, 

surprised by lines Dad or my sister would recall:

“He said to his friend, 'If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light....'”

Longfellow recalled action in 1775,

but wrote of “Paul Revere's Ride,” 

the same year 51,000 died at Gettysburg. 

For my father, who did air raid drills in school 

and served in the army signal corps in Vietnam, 

Longfellow knew the urgency of being an American.