<p>"Concord Hymn" (original title was "Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19, 1838") is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of the Obelisk, a monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the Battle of Concord, the second in a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution. </p> <p>The "Concord Hymn" was written at the request of the Battle Monument Committee. At Concord's Independence Day celebration on July 4, 1837, it was first read, then sung as a hymn by a local choir using the then-familiar tune "Old Hundredth".</p> <p>The poem elevates the battle above a simple event, setting Concord as the spiritual center of the American nation, removes specific details about the battle itself, and exalts a general spirit of revolution and freedom— a spirit Emerson hoped would outlive those who fought in the battle. One source of the hymn's power may be Emerson's personal ties to the subject: his grandfather William Emerson, Sr., witnessed the battle at the North Bridge while living at the Old Manse.</p> <p>Emerson's line "the shot heard round the world" is a fixture in the lore of the American Revolution.</p>
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