The intended effect of the metaphor of a “phantom ship” in stanza three is to show that the British ship is dangerous. The term "phantom" implies something ghostly and foreboding, suggesting that the British ship poses a threat in the context of the setting, especially as Revere is preparing to alert the colonists to the impending British march.
Paul Revere’s Ride
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal-light,
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
Then he said, Good-night! and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Use the first three stanzas of the poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to answer the question.
What is the intended effect of the metaphor of a “phantom ship” in stanza three?
(1 point)
Responses
to show how the British ship reflects the water
to show how the British ship reflects the water
to suggest that the ship appeared suddenly
to suggest that the ship appeared suddenly
to indicate that the moon is not bright over the bay
to indicate that the moon is not bright over the bay
to show that the British ship is dangerous
1 answer
1 answer