Perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly Gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last Intwine, The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine. Grecian - Voice, fiddle and flute, No longer to be mute I'll lend ye my name, and inspire ye to boot And, besides I'll instruct you, like me to Glee, A few sons of harmony sent out a petition, That he their inspirer and patron would be When this answer arrived from this jolly old To Anacreon, in Heav'n, where he sat in full Star-Spangled Banner the official national anthem. ![]() In 1931 the Congress of The United States of America enacted legislation that made The ![]() Poem, when he saw the flag over Fort McHenry "by the dawn's early light." On Septemthat inspired 35-year old, poet-lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the It was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during the British attack When the Warrior Returns in honor of an American naval victory over the Barbary pirates. Most prominent American song prior to The Star-Spangled Banner.Īs early as 1806 Francis Scott Key adapted the tune to an earlier poem he wrote entitled As earlyĪs 1798 the tune of The Anacreontic Song appeared in American papers with various lyrics,Īmong these was Robert Treat Paine's (1731-1814) popular Adams and Liberty, perhaps the Set to different lyrics here in the US which we know as My Country T'is of Thee). Smith (1750-1836), a court musician and member of the society, was probably the drivingįorce (he is also the composer of the British national anthem - God Save the Queen - a tune Perhaps even probable, that the song was a collective effort by the members. President of the Society, Ralph Tomlinson, Esquire. The first four words of which are "To Anacreon in Heaven. Was dedicated to "wit, harmony, and the god of wine." The lyrics of the Anacreontic Song, Lived in the fifth century B.C., the "convivial bard of Greece"). Was a popular gentlemen's club in London (named after a Greek poet, Anacreon, who ![]() ![]() The drinking song that Francis Scott Key used was from the Anacreontic Society, which Following this custom, Francis Scott Key used a popular English drinking song as ForĮxample, Maryland, My Maryland is sung to the same tune as O Tanenbaum ( Oh Christmas Fittingly, one of Fitzgerald’s working titles for his most famous novel, The Great Gatsby, was ‘Under the Red, White and Blue’.The Star Spangled Banner The Star Spangled Bannerĭuring the 1800's, the tunes of popular songs often were used for another set of lyrics. Scott Fitzgerald – who was Key’s second cousin, three times removed. By then, his name was attached to another famous American writer, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald – better known as F. If things had been a little different, ‘ Hail, Columbia’, ‘ America the Beautiful’, or even ‘ My Country, ’Tis of Thee’ were all contenders for that honour.įrancis Scott Key was, of course, long dead by the time his poem became the lyrical basis for his country’s national anthem. So, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ started life as a poem called ‘The Defence of Fort M’Henry’, was written not by one of America’s leading poets of the day but by an amateur, and – despite being written in 1814 – only became the official US national anthem in 1931. These words, of course, have become famous beyond the poem (or song): many people refer to the United States as the ‘land of the free’, especially. Throughout ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, Francis Scott Key uses the refrain, ‘O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave’.
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