Read the poem.

excerpt from "paul revere's ride"
by henry wadsworth longfellow

paul revere was an express rider who, on april 18, 1775, was charged with delivering a message and alerting communities about the approaching british troops.

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.

read these lines from the poem.

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.

what is the effect of the description of the british ship?

it suggests the enemy ships are imaginary.

it hints that there is danger coming.

it reveals the threat of a new enemy.

it connects the reader to the sailors on the ship.