thumb|Emerson's "Concord Hymn" was written for the dedication of the memorial of the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord|Battle of Concord.]]
"Concord Hymn" (original title "Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, April 19, 1836") is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson written for the 1837 dedication of an obelisk monument in Concord, Massachusetts, commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord, a series of battles and skirmishes on April 19, 1775 which sparked the American Revolutionary War. The poem was the origin of the phrase "shot heard round the world".
History
In October 1834, Emerson went to live with his step-grandfather Ezra Ripley in Concord, at what was later named The Old Manse— less than a hundred paces from the spot where the battle took place. In 1835, he purchased a home on the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike and quickly became one of Concord's leading citizens. That same year he was asked to give a public lecture commemorating the town's 200th anniversary.
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".
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.
thumb|right|The first stanza of "Concord Hymn" is inscribed at the base of [[The Minute Man, an 1874 statue by Daniel Chester French.]]
thumb|right|The poem's first stanza was also featured on a 1925 U.S. 5-cent [[Postage stamp|stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the battle.]]
Emerson's poem was widely published in newspaper accounts of the dedication. In contrast there is no record of Congressman Samuel Hoar's speech that day. The poem, originally printed as a broadside for distribution at the monument's dedication, was republished as the last poem in Emerson's first edition of Poems in December 1848 (the book, however, was dated 1847). In that edition the poem appeared with the three line title "HYMN: / SUNG AT THE COMPLETION OF THE CONCORD MONUMENT, / April 19, 1836." Emerson apparently confused the date of the 1837 dedication a decade earlier, July 4, Independence Day, with the anniversary of the battle, April 19, Patriots' Day and the inscription on the obelisk mentions that it was erected in 1836. "Concord Hymn" established Emerson as a poet; he was previously known as a lecturer and essayist. Concord's centennial celebration of Emerson's birth in 1903 ended with a singing of the hymn.