Who wrote "Paul Revere's Ride"?

• A. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• B. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• C. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• D. Sidney Lanier

Answer: (B)

The main idea this question tests is who authored the famous narrative poem about Paul Revere. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "Paul Revere's Ride." This poem, opening with “Listen, my children, and you shall hear,” is a hallmark of Longfellow’s approach: clear, accessible storytelling that brings a historical moment to life for a broad audience. Longfellow often wrote about American history and legends in a ballad-like form, aiming to make national myths memorable and inspiring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Sidney Lanier are notable writers in their own right, but they are known for very different kinds of work—Emerson for essays and transcendental ideas, Solzhenitsyn for 20th-century Russian fiction and political critique, and Lanier for Southern American poetry with different subjects. The poem about Paul Revere is distinctly tied to Longfellow’s historical-ballad voice, which is why he is the best match for this work.