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I've been having a friendly festive-season chat with some US friends on another forum, and there is some interesting stuff about the US National Anthem, the "Star-Spangled Banner".
For example, the full verses are thus (how many here know a third verse exists?) :
1. 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 rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru 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?
2. On the shore, dimly seen thru the mists 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!
3. Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r 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!
(Text: Francis Scott Key, 1779–1843
Music: John Stafford Smith, 1750–1836)
Ironically, the tune is from England, it was a drinking song:
4g
It was written for the Anacreon Society around 1771. The tune is now thought to have been written "collectively" by members of the society. The society met every two weeks to get drunk, sing songs and to indulge in debauchery. Anacreon himself was a Greek poet from about 570BC who was noted for his erotic poetry.
The last line of each six verses is about getting laid. The last line of each verse in the Anacreon song is: "The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine"
It's too bad school textbooks sometimes don't make history interesting. It is when you get down into it, especially with little details such as the tune from the US National Anthem coming from an English drinking song that was also about getting laid. These kinds of things need to be in the textbooks, so kids and adults are more interested in history.
Happy New Year to all my Taylorcraft friends & pilots that I know, either in person or through the ether.
Rob
For example, the full verses are thus (how many here know a third verse exists?) :
1. 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 rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru 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?
2. On the shore, dimly seen thru the mists 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!
3. Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r 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!
(Text: Francis Scott Key, 1779–1843
Music: John Stafford Smith, 1750–1836)
Ironically, the tune is from England, it was a drinking song:
It was written for the Anacreon Society around 1771. The tune is now thought to have been written "collectively" by members of the society. The society met every two weeks to get drunk, sing songs and to indulge in debauchery. Anacreon himself was a Greek poet from about 570BC who was noted for his erotic poetry.
The last line of each six verses is about getting laid. The last line of each verse in the Anacreon song is: "The Myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's Vine"
It's too bad school textbooks sometimes don't make history interesting. It is when you get down into it, especially with little details such as the tune from the US National Anthem coming from an English drinking song that was also about getting laid. These kinds of things need to be in the textbooks, so kids and adults are more interested in history.
Happy New Year to all my Taylorcraft friends & pilots that I know, either in person or through the ether.
Rob
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