American anthem - Star Spangled Banner
If there is anything taken more seriously than the US flag, it's possibly the national anthem. The Star-spangled Banner accompanies just about every major American function, and at major sporting events a significant honour is bestowed on those asked to sing what is probably the best known national anthem in the world.
Listen closely to the words and it tells of a highly emotional moment in US history when the war with the British was being fought and of one man's relief in seeing the US flag still flying after a vicious bombardment.
Before the Battle
The War of 1812 had been a particularly nasty conflict with the British. They had burned down the Capitol and the White House in Washington, and were set on taking the port of Baltimore, which was protected in part by Fort McHenry, just to the south.
On September 7th, 1814, during the build-up to the attack on Baltimore, two Americans, Colonel John Skinner and a lawyer and part-time poet by the name of Francis Scott Key, had gone out to one of the British ships. They had come to negotiate the release of Dr William Beanes, a friend of Key who had been seized following the attack on Washington. The British agreed, but all three had learned too much about the forthcoming attack on Baltimore and so were detained by the British on board the frigate 'Surprise' until it was over.
The Defense of Fort McHenry
The attack started on September 12th, 1814, and after an initial exchange of fire, the fleet withdrew to form an arc just outside the range of Fort McHenry's fire.
Skinner, Beanes and Key watched much of the bombardment from the British deck. The major attack started in heavy rain on the morning of September 13th. Just under three miles in the distance the three men caught glimpses of the star-shaped fort with its huge flag - 42ft long, with 8 red stripes, 7 white stripes and 15 white stars, and specially commissioned to be big enough that the British could not possibly fail to see it from a distance.
In the dark of the night of the 13th, the shelling suddenly stopped. Through the darkness they couldn't tell whether the British forces had been defeated, or the fort had fallen.
As the rain cleared, and the sun began to rise, Key peered through the lifting darkness anxious to see if the flag they had seen the night before was still flying. And so it was that he scribbled on the back of an envelope the first lines of a poem he called Defense of Fort M'Henry:
O, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming
As the mist started to clear he was aware that there was a flag flying - but was it the British flag? It was difficult to tell:
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
But finally the sun rose, and with intense relief and pride he saw that the fort had withstood the onslaught ...
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The poem
Keys, Beanes and Skinner were taken by the British back to shore on Friday, September 16th. In his room in the Indian Queen Hotel, Keys completed all four verses of the poem, and the following morning he took it to his brother-in-law, a local judge, who thought it so good that he arranged to have it printed as a handbill. Printing was completed by Monday morning, and the copies were distributed to everyone at the Fort.
Key made a number of hand-written copies of his original poem, introducing occasional changes as he did so. But it wasn't just Key that made alterations; various editors along the way have also had a hand in altering spelling, punctuation and even the words. The original text of the poem has therefore varied depending on where you read it.
The tune
It is possible that Key only ever intended this as a poem; there was nothing in his original notes to suggest a tune. However, there was a very popular tune of the time, which Key would have been familiar and for which had been written many differents sets of words. Perhaps the most notable of these was Robert Treat Paine's ode, Adams and Liberty, written for the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society in 1798. All these songs had the same very distinctive form and metre, and there can be no doubt that Key was heavily influenced by it (and may even have had it in mind).
When the handbills were printed, they did bear the name of this tune to which the poem should be sung - To Anacreon In Heaven. Somewhat ironically, this is a song written for a British drinking club!
The Anacreontic Society was a popular genetlemen's drinking club, based in a pub in the Strand, London. The words of the song had been written by the society's president, Ralph Tomlinson, but the tune is more of a mystery.
At one time, the English composer Dr Thomas Arnold was thought to be its composer - Arnold had written numerous songs for the society. However, it is now accepted that the tune was probably written collectively by a group of members, led by John Stafford Smith, probably in 1771.
The poem and tune became an anthem
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it should become the National Anthem played by the military and naval services, but it wasn't until March 3rd, 1931 that it was officially designated as the National Anthem by act of Congress:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the composition known as The Star-spangled Banner is designated as the National Anthem of the United States of America.
In the third verse of the poem, Key expresses his particular bitterness towards the British:
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution
No refuge could save the hireling & slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave
An understandable feeling of the time, but as the two nations came closer, such sentiments weren't considered appropriate and as a result this third verse is usually omitted. A couple of alternative verses have been written in later years, and these are included on the page containing the text of the Anthem.
One of the original copies that Key wrote was sold to the Maryland Historical Society for $26,400 in 1953. Of the original printed versions, it is believed that only eleven copies still exist and the only known copy that is in private hands was sold by Christie's on 3rd December, 2010, for $506,500. The actual flag that he saw is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.
During the war of 1812 (on September 14, 1814), poet Francis Scott Key wrote a poem entitled "Defense of Fort McHenry", being inspired by seeing the American flag still flying amidst the battle. Key never meant for it to become a song, or a national anthem, yet after showing the poem to his brother in law Judge Joseph H Nicholson, Nicholson noticed the poem could fit the tune "The Anacreontic Song" (also known as "To Anacraeon in Heaven"), a song originally written for a gentlemen's social club in London, but gained popularity outside Great Britian, including in the United States, where by this time the tune was familiar to American ears. (The tune was also once the national anthem of Luxembourg). Key may have had this tune in mind when he wrote the poem; an earlier poem of his called "When the Warrior Returns" was also in the same rhythym, could be set to the same tune, and is of similar subject matter - the last two lines of each stanza of that poem also end with "wave" and "brave".
The poem spread quickly across the United States, the first printing of the poem in a Baltimore paper suggested the "Anacraeon in Heaven" tune, and it stuck. A Baltimore music store owner first printed the song under the title "The Star Spangled Banner." It gained in popularity, and was made the official tune to accompany flag raisings by the secretary of the Navy in 1889. In 1916 it was ordered to be played at military and other occassions, and, due to a large public relations effort, it was officially adopted by Congress as the first official national anthem of the United States in 1931. There are four verses to the anthem, but it is the first verse that is almost always sung. (Interestingly, the first verse is a question, only answered by the other three verses).
The Star Spangled Banner
In addition to countless patriotic songs, there are also state songs for each of the fifty states as well. Also, the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" is considered an unofficial anthem by the African-American community, and is often used by African-American organizations and at events for the African-American community.
One of two surviving copies of the 1814 broadside printing of the "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem that later became the lyrics of the national anthem of the United States.
The Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early lightBelieve It or Not
What so proudly we hailed 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?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In fully glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution!
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust":
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Interestingly, it was Robert L. Ripley of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" that spurred the interest of the American people to demand "The Star Spangled Banner" to become the official national anthem.
On November 3, 1929, Ripley ran a panel in his syndicated cartoon stating that "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem." Americans were shocked and wrote five million letters to Congress demanding Congress proclaim a national anthem.
On March 3, 1931, U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed an act that officially made "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem for the United States. Before this time, the United States had been without any national anthem.
Lyrics
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