You may remember that The Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem, was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, but did you know it is a religious song? Originally written as a poem, Francis Scott Key instructed others to sing the words to the tune "Anacreon in Heaven" written by John Stafford Smith. Although "heavenly" sounding in title, The Anacreotic Song was actually a bar song that got "saved" so-to-speak.
Here are the patriotic words to the first stanza, which most U.S. citizens learned as children and still sing before baseball games, and every time one of our athletes win a gold medal at the Olympics. It is customary to place your right hand over your heart, as one does when saying the pledge of allegiance, unless you are a Jehovah's Witness, Communist, or Barack Hussein Obama.
Lyrics:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru 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?
And here are the words to the fourth stanza:
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!
The song officially became our national anthem in 1931 by an act of Congress after both the U.S. Army and Navy had already adopted it as such.
Let's hope we hear more of it at the 2010 Olympics broadcast on NBC San Diego KSND
Comments
Placing your hand over the heart when singing the national anthem is something new. I'm guessing it started about the time of 9/11. I don't remember anyone ever doing that when I was a child in the 1960s, a teen in the 1970s, or a young adult in the 1980's or most of the 1990s. I think the Clintons would have had an apoplexy (stroke) if they saw folks doing that during the 1990s. It is kind of like the passing of the peace in church. I remember about 1970 a new minister introduced this practice, saying it was something new being done in Calif. Now it is commonplace and people forget it wasn't always something we did.
Over 50 here......can easily recollect people with hands over heart as a youngster back in the 60's and on thru present.
hmmm.....another thought, now that this is a "religous" song: will the left want to ban it from public exposure in the same vein as anything associated with Christmas, 10 commandments etc?
I remember seeing hand on heart while singing in the eighties. We didnt' do it in gradeschool in the seventies though. I think it got started about the same time people quit doing the pledge of allegiance.
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