The famous narrative poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes the midnight ride of Paul Revere to warn the American farmers and villagers that the British were coming to attack. This poem is the origin of the famous saying "One if by land, two if by sea".
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar,
The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat.