[TheForge] The Anthem

Tue Jul 4 17:32:18 EDT 2006

Thanks for that, Frosty.  I have never heard that before, nor do I remember 
hearing more than the first verse.  Definitely never had them written down 
so I could remember them.

Rick Crawford at Rafter Lazy C
  Home of Smoky Forge and Lem the Wonder Mule
   In the middle of Northern Illinois

    http://www.smokyforge.com
     rick at smokyforge.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry Frost" <frosty at customcpu.com>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 11:59 AM
Subject: [TheForge] The Anthem

> Support our troops.  Remember our Veterans
>
>
> !!HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE!!
>
>
>
>  Our National Anthem
>   BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV
>
>
>
>
>   Editor's Note - Near the end of his life the great science fiction 
> author 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 State s, 
> 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.
>
>
> Anthem
>
>   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 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.
>
>
>
> Happy 4th. EVERYBODY
>
> Frosty
> -------------------------------
> If it ain't forged
> it ain't real.
> Wrought iron is.
> The FrostWorks
>
> Meadow Lakes, AK.
>
> http://www.artmetalradio.com/
>
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