|
Our National Anthem - By Dr. Isaac
Asimov 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 State s,
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 America n 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 State s.
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.
Submitted by Dick, Williamsport, Md.
|
![[]](../../../pictures/2006/Fw%20Proof%20of%20global%20warming.jpg)