the forgotten Revolutionary hero

Hari ini membaca puisi "Paul Revere's Midnight Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Sebab Senin yang lalu adalah hari libur Patriots' Day di Massachussetts & Maine. (tapi sayangnya Harvard tidak mau libur dan artinya Ari tetap kuliah dan aku tetap bekerja).

Patriots Day intinya mengenang kemenangan Patriot Amerika/minutemen terhadap tentara Inggris di tahun 1775. Beberapa tokoh pemberontakan yang populer adalah John Hancock (yang punya menara tinggi) dan Samuel Adams (yang namanya jadi merek bir).

Tokoh yang juga aku kenal karena berkali-kali napak tilas freedom trail, adalah Paul Revere. Rumahnya masih ada sampai sekarang di daerah Little Italy jadi museum. Tapi sayangnya di buku guide Boston (yang aku punya) dibilang 'tidak perlu kesana'. Jadinya aku tidak pernah kesana!

Paul Revere dengan kudanya pergi di suatu malam untuk memberikan peringatan pada pemberontak-pemberontak yang lain di Concord/Lexington untuk bersiap karena tentara Inggris akan menyerang. Jadi Revere adalah pahlawan.

Tapi sebenarnya Paul Revere tidak sendiri. Ia pergi melalui jalan sungai dan ada seorang lagi yaitu William Dawes yang pergi melalui darat.

The night was over.... Paul Revere was a hero. How about William Dawes? Check this:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/patriotsday/peopleevents/p_dawes.html

So Forgotten It's Funny

Over the years, Dawes' relative anonymity has become something of a joke. In 1896, Helen F. Moore published a parody of Longfellow's famous poem about the historic night, entitled "The Midnight Ride of William Dawes," one verse of which reads:'Tis all very well for the children to hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;But why should my name be quite forgot,Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?Why should I ask? The reason is clear --My name was Dawes and his Revere.

A cartoon in the early 1960s turned on the same humor, namely that "Dawes" was a name less suited for rhyming than "Revere" (in that comic strip, Longfellow is stuck on "Listen my children while I pause, to tell the ride of William Dawes" when his wife suggests using the name of that other rider). More recently Dawes was the punchline on an episode of "The Simpsons," as the epitome of the forgotten Revolutionary hero.

jul