Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" commemorates the dedication of a monument to the Battle of Concord. This battle was one of the earliest in the American Revolution, and it set in motion the conflict that resulted in American independence from colonial British rule. The speaker implores the crowd to remember the bravery of "embattled [American] farmers" and asks the same "spirit" that inspired the farmers to guard the monument against the destructive forces of time and nature. Written for the monument's dedication day in 1837, "Concord Hymn" was eventually published in Emerson's collection Poems (1848).
Summary
It was here by the crudely-built bridge over the river, with their flag rippling in an April breeze, that the farmers stood up to the British threat—and famously fired their guns, kicking off a world-renowned battle.
The enemy has now been dead for a long time; similarly, the victors sleep in the silence of the past. The forces of time have swept that wrecked bridge away, down the shadowy river that runs towards the sea.
Standing on this green riverside beside the gently flowing stream, we today set up a monument to honor that battle, so that the farmers' heroic actions will be kept alive in our memory, even when the next generation, like the generation before, is dead.
May the same spirit that made those heroes brave enough to sacrifice their lives and grant future generations their freedom now ask time and nature to kindly preserve this monument, which honors those soldiers (and that spirit of bravery itself).
Themes
Heroism and Remembrance
"Concord Hymn" is a commemorative poem written for the 1837 dedication of a monument to the Battle of Concord. The stone obelisk was erected to celebrate the bravery and determination of a group of farmers who, in 1775, fought against the British in one of the earliest battles of the American Revolutionary War. The poem presents their heroism as something that should be remembered and honored as a historic blow against British colonial rule. But there is also a cautionary note here: heroic actions and the heroic dead, the poem suggests, are easily forgotten, and it takes conscious work and commitment to tend to their memory.
The speaker stands on the site of the battle, noting that there is little there to tell the farmers' story. Though the battle was a vitally important event in world history, the landscape itself doesn't record the momentous events that happened there. Both sides of the war, the speaker observes, now metaphorically “sleep” in the silence of death. And even the bridge near which the "embattled farmers" defiantly unfurled their flag no longer stands. The whole world is in a process of constant change, and so even things that seem momentous at the time can quickly "creep" into oblivion. On the same note, the speaker acknowledges how the crowd's forefathers are "gone," and likewise, "our sons [will be gone]" too. In other words, nothing lasts forever!
Precisely because the landscape shows no marks of the battle, the “generations” who have come after the revolutionaries must make a conscious effort to remember and honor their heroism. The effort to remember, the poem suggests, is a meaningful and important kind of gratitude. The speaker says that "memory may their deed redeem." In other words, as long as later generations honor the revolutionaries’ sacrifice, it wasn't made in vain. The speaker notes that the stone monument around which a crowd now gathers is a "votive"—that is, an object offered to mark the fulfillment of a vow. The obelisk—and the poem itself—are a promise that future generations won’t forget the farmers' heroic actions.
But the poem acknowledges that remembrance is not easy. Over time, the events of the past become more and more remote and seem less obviously relevant to those alive in the present. The speaker, therefore, asks the "Spirit" of courage that inspired the farmers to also aid in this ongoing remembrance, suggesting that efforts at remembrance might themselves require a kind of heroism. Only through the work of that “Spirit,” the speaker suggests, is there any chance that "Time and Nature” might “gently spare" the monument from oblivion and preserve the memory of the revolutionaries. Remembrance thus requires further acts of heroism by subsequent generations—and, perhaps, a little luck.
Time and Nature
Though "Concord Hymn" is meant as a lasting tribute, the poem acknowledges a simple, sad fact about life: nothing lasts. “Time” and “Nature,” the poem suggests, work together to wear away even humanity's greatest achievements.
As a ceremonial work intended to be shared on a particular day, the poem creates a sense of occasion, making time a prominent theme. Before the poem even begins, the epigraph notes when and why it was written: for the 1837 dedication of a monument to the Battle of Concord. That battle is now distant to the poem’s original audience—and this commemorative poem itself is distant from the modern-day reader! By drawing attention to the passage of time, the speaker reminds those present at the ceremony—and the reader, too—that they will all be captured by time's forces. Their "sires" (or fathers) are gone, and one day their "sons" will be gone too.
The poem presents this impermanence as a fact of life and a force of nature. In fact, it's nature that does much of time's destructive work. When the farmers fought back against the British at the battle of Concord, it was besides a bridge that "arched" over a "flood." On the one hand, this is a reference to a real bridge over a real river—but it's also a symbol for the flow of time. That "ruined bridge" was swept down "the dark stream which seaward creeps." Both literally and metaphorically, nature reclaims the world from humankind through the passage of time.
Though the monument the poem commemorates seems built to last, and the day seems beautiful and calm, time and nature thus lurk in the background waiting to have their way. In the poem's present, the crowd stands on a "green bank" beside a "soft stream." But the speaker implies that this pleasant scene offers a false sense of security. If the monument does survive, it will be through future generations’ diligent efforts to fight time and nature—efforts that will, inevitably, eventually fail.
콩코드 찬가
시내위로 휘어진 거친 다리 옆에
그들의 깃발을 사월 미풍에 날리었다.
여기 예전에 농부들이 진을 치고
그들이 쏜 총소리는 온 세상을 울렸다.
적은 그 후 오랫동안 고요히 잠이 들었다.
승리자도 역시 고요히 자고 있다.
그리고 세월은, 낡아 무너진 그 다리를 바다로
가는 어두운 물결에
휩쓸어 버렸다.
이 푸른 언덕 위에,
이 고요한 시냇가에,
우리는 오늘 기념비를 세운다.
우리의 선조들과 같이
우리의 자손들도 간 뒤에
그 기념이 그들의 공적에 보답 할 수 있도록
그 용사들로 하여금
감히 죽게 하시고
그들의 자손이 자유를 누리도록 하게 하신
정신이여
세월과 자연에게
부드럽게 아끼라고 명하옵소서.
우리가 그들과 당신에게 드리는
이 비석을.
형식
* 한 행에 4개의 강세가 있는 Quatrains , Iamb tetrameter
특징
* rude bridge – 아직 정비되지 않은 다리, 고난과 시련을 상징 (기념비가 독립 후 60년 뒤에 세워졌기 때문)
* 1연의 마지막행 – 너의 행동을 세상이 알아줄 것이라는 의미 상징, 과장법
* Foe (적)은 slept (과거형), conqueror(정복군)은 sleeps (현재형) 인 이유 : 적은 바로 죽었지만 정복자는 승리해서 더 생존하여 우리랑 함께 있음을 의미
* 2연, 4연의 Time = Allegory
* 3연의 may – 기원의 may
* 범신론적 사상, 동양사상, 초절주의 사상을 갖고 있는 에머슨의 특징이 잘 나타남.
(자연 속의 기쁨, 개인(I)이 중요, 자기 신뢰 등)
Rude 낡은
Flood 물살
Unfurled 펄럭였다
Embattled 전쟁중인
Foe 적
Seaward 바다를 향한
Votive 봉헌의 stone 비
Deed 행동 redeem 만회,회복하다
Spare 살려두다
Shaft 기념비(의 축)