The Star-Spangled Banner
The following is courtesy of Mr. George Paukert, aka Mr. Real Estate:
This is the story of our national anthem and how it came to be. I knew generally but not in this
detail. It is a truly wonderful story. I think you will enjoy it. It will also instill a terrific feeling of
pride in this country and what it stands for. And for the troops who are sacrificing overseas so
that we remain free. Please pass it on to all of your family and friends.
[Editor's Note - Near the end of his life the great science fiction writer Dr. Isaac Asimov wrote a
short story about the four stanzas of our national anthem. However brief, this well-circulated
piece is an eye opener from the dearly departed doctor...]
I have a weakness -- I am crazy absolutely nuts, about our national anthem. The words are
difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but frequently when I'm taking a shower I sing it with
as much power and emotion as I can. It shakes me up every time.
I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going
to sing our national anthem -- all four stanzas. This was greeted with loud groans. One man
closed the door to the kitchen, where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting.
"Thanks, Herb," I said.
"That's all right," he said. "It was at the request of the kitchen staff."
I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas. Let me tell you, those
people had never heard it before - or had never really listened. I got a standing ovation. But it
was not me; it was the anthem.
More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of the anthem and sang
all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and prolonged applause. And again, it was the
anthem and not me.
So now let me tell you how it came to be written ...
In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of the seas.
We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather
weak country. Great Britain was in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the
United States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia.If he won, as everyone
expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated. It was no time for her to
be involved in an American war.
At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813,
the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message, "We have met the enemy
and they are ours." However, the weight of the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New
England, hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession.
Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate. Great Britain
now turned its attention to the United States, launching a three-pronged attack.
The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of
New England.
The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west.
The central prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the greatest
port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast,
could be split in two. The fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success
or failure of the central prong.
The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took Washington, D.C. Then
they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore.
On September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns controlled
the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort.
On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in
Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and friend of the
physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his release. The British captain was willing, but the
two Americans would have to wait. It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment
of Fort McHenry was about to start.
As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry.
Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets. They knew the
fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying. But toward morning the bombardment
ceased, and a dread silence fell. Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew
above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.
As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see
which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have asked each other over and over, "Can
you see the flag?"
After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events of the night. Called "The
Defense of Fort McHenry. " It was published in newspapers and swept the nation. Someone
noted that the words fit an old English tune called, "To Anacreon in Heaven" - a difficult melody
with an uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became known as
"The Star Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United
States.
Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor is speaking. This
is what he asks Key:
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, 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 thro' 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?
"Ramparts," in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that surround a
fort. The first stanza asks a question. The second stanza gives an answer:
On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist 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 full glory reflected, now shines on 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!
"The towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and the British can
do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure.
In the third stanza, I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American triumph. In the aftermath
of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to act otherwise.
During World War II, when the British were our staunchest allies, this third stanza was not sung.
However, I know it, so here it is:
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 footstep's 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.
The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than the other three
and with even deeper feeling:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the next time you have a
chance, with new ears. And don't let them ever take it away.
Thank you for sharing your love of our National Anthem with us, Dr. Asimov. Happy Fourth of July to you all, and may we never take our freedom for granted. --
Ann
;)
;)
