We all know the name of our national anthem, but actually there are three different songs people seem to love that could fill that purpose. “The Star Spangled Banner” might be the strangest of them, actually being an ode to a flag in a long-ago war.
Its melody was originally a British drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and its lyrics were from a poem by Francis Scott Key, “In Defence of Fort M’Henry,” written in 1814. The combination didn’t actually become our national anthem until 1931, when most Americans had other things on their minds.
It’s doubtful that one in a hundred Americans know the lyrics to all four verses, or possibly even that there are four verses.
The song is hardly ever performed as anything but a ceremonial introduction to events, and I have never been at an event where more than the first verse was sung.
It’s a relatively violent verse compare to most anthems, but nothing matches the bloodthirsty nature of the world’s most memorable anthem, “La Marseillaise.” The refrain pretty well says it all.
“Grab your weapons, citizens! Form your battalions! Let us march! Let us march! May impure blood water our fields!”
One of the more interesting anthems is Britain’s “God Save the Queen,” which in its second verse suggests interesting ways to defeat the enemy.
“O Lord our God arise, Scatter our enemies, And make them fall! Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all!“
Of course “God Save the Queen” is the melody to our own “My Country Tis of Thee,” maybe the least distinguished of the three songs, except for a well-turned four-word phrase:
“Of thee I sing.”
The most beautiful song of our American patriotic songs has always been “America the Beautiful,” which has four wonderful verses with each saying something different about this wondrous land.
The first is the one everyone knows, and it cites the natural beauty, from purple mountain majesties, fruited plains and shining seas.
The second isn’t heard as often.
“O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.”
This is the verse that honors the original European settlers and their desire to create a great home for all white people.
(Sorry, but let’s be honest)
The third verse is probably the least heard, but it means so much.
“O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life. America! America! May God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine!
Freedom has never been free, and millions of men and women have sacrificed their lives for causes greater than themselves. We used to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. How we’re a consumer society. Enough said about that.
And then the last verse, which looks to the future and is sung more often than the two middle verses.
“O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”
This represents the dream of the Founders, who truly thought they were creating something wonderful. We could have had it, too. If only we hadn’t decided to let the stupidest, most shortsighted rich people in the world run things.
We could make a lot of progress just by taking the people who drool at the thought of telling other people what to do and deport them.
Alabaster cities undimmed by human tears indeed.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful?