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Excerpts from

Chapter 6

NATIONAL HYMNS AND SONGS

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

Oh! say can you see by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there!
Oh!-say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

(Written by Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer, in 1814. Under a flag of truce, Key and the United States agent for the parole of prisoners went on a United States vessel to the British fleet near Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, to intercede for an American friend who was being held as prisoner by the British. During the mission, the British began their attack upon Fort McHenry. The American vessel was detained, and Key witnessed the bombardment all through the night. On the following morning, September 14, 1814, he saw the Stars and Stripes still flying over the fort. In a spirit of thanksgiving and joy he was inspired to write the words of the "Star Spangled Banner." It is reported that he wrote some of the lines and brief notes on the back of a letter which he carried in his pocket. He finished the poem as he returned to Baltimore that night. It was printed immediately, hailed with enthusiasm, and took its place as our national song.)

AMERICA

My country! 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring.

(Written by Reverend Samuel F. Smith, Boston minister, in February 1832. While a student at Andover, Rev. Smith was assigned to translate some German songs. Later he wrote "I came across the air, 'God Save the King.' I liked the music. I glanced at the German words at the foot of the page. Under the inspiration of the moment I went to work and in half an hour 'America' was the result . . . I did not know, at the time, that

the tune was the British 'God Save the King,' and I do not share the regret of those who deem it unfortunate that the national tune of Britain and America should be the same.” "America" was first sung at a children's celebration in Boston, July 4, 1832.)

COLUMBIA, THE GEM OF THE OCEAN

O Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each patriot's devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When Liberty's form stands in view
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,

When borne by the red, white, and blue!

(Generally credited to Thomas À. Becket, an actor of English birth, who was long a resident of Philadelphia. It has been a popular national song since it was first sung in Philadelphia in 1843. In England the melody is known as "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean.")

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea!

(Written by Katharine Lee Bates, Wellesley College professor. The poem was inspired by her first trip to Pikes Peak in 1893: "As I was looking out over the sealike expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.")

GOD BLESS AMERICA

God bless America

Land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America

My home sweet home.

(Written by Irving Berlin, a naturalized citizen, in 1917, during World War I. The song, however, was not published at that time; in fact, Kate Smith really introduced "God Bless America" on an Armistice Day broadcast, November 11, 1938. "You have to go away," says Mr. Berlin, "to really know what home is like. You have to have been in Europe to know how wonderful America is. * * * I came back so grateful and thankful to be an American citizen, I just had to do something to express that feeling * * * and, being a song writer, I wanted to write a song about it. * * * I feel this particular song has a quality none of my others has. You see, it isn't a song about war or peace or the flag. It's a song about home. * * * And America is my home, and so I say, 'God Bless America.'")

CONCORD HYMN

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard 'round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has swept

Down the dark stream which seaward creeps,
On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We set today a votive stone;

That memory may their deed redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid Time and Nature gently spare

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

(Written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and sung at the completion of the Battle Monument, April 19, 1936.)

HOME, SWEET HOME!

Mid pleasures and palaces tho we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,

Which, seek thru the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, Home! sweet, sweet Home!

There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!

(Written by John Howard Payne, first sung in the opera Capri at the Covent Garden Theater, London, in May 1823.

(Payne lived much of his life away from his native land. While serving as American Consul, he died in Tunis, Africa, April 9, 1852. Thirty-one years later, the United States Government dispatched a man-of-war to the African Coast. In the lonely cemetery in Tunis, Americans opened the grave, placed his remains on board the returning battleship. Firing of guns in the fort and flags at half-mast marked the arrival in the American harbor. The body was taken to the Nation's Capital on a special train. Governmental and commercial business was suspended. As the funeral procession passed down Pennsylvania Avenue, the President, Vice President, Cabinet members, Congressmen, members of the Supreme Court, high officers of the Army and Navy, and a mass of citizens stood with uncovered heads. They thus paid homage to a man whose soul longed for home, and who expressed that longing in the words of the ever-living song: "Home Sweet Home.")

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