Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world.
-- Speaker (Lines 3 – 4)

Importance: These lines from the first stanza of the poem note the physical location of the battle of Concord, in which colonial forces fired on retreating British soldiers. The unexpected nature of this armed skirmish, in which it was presumed there would not be bloodletting through gunfire, is memorialized in Emerson’s line about the resonance of the even. Through hyperbole, Emerson suggests that the significance of the colonial revolt cannot be understated as an event of profound world historical significance.

The foe long since in silence slept; / Alike the conqueror silent sleeps
-- Speaker (Lines 5 – 6)

Importance: In these lines from the second stanza of “Concord Hymn” Emerson compares the rest of the dead from both sides of the war. Neither group of soldiers is explicitly named. In mythological terms they are both anonymous. However, the commemorative position which privileges the...