| Sunday,
July 4 2010
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Happy Birthday, America
 
Thanks to Ed Hume for reminding
me of this. For those who don't know, Isaac had a beautiful professional
quality tenor voice, and he loved to perform. That often took the form of
limericks, but sometimes Isaac could be more serious:
Our National Anthem.
Four Stanzas
By Isaac Asimov
Introductory Note. Unless you're
already well acquainted with our "national anthem," this interesting piece
by the late Isaac Asimov will be an eye-opener. It was for me. It's
especially appropriate at a time when there is much talk of tossing out this
difficult-to-sing and difficult-to-comprehend old song in favor of something
that better suits Ray Charles' voice. You'll understand the song much
better after you read Mr. Asimov's explanation.--Hardly Waite, Gazette
Senior Editor.
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 1000 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 Defence of Fort M'Henry,"
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 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 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 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.
--Isaac Asimov, March 1991
=================
The Fourth Verse is especially dear to the cadets
and midshipmen at our service academies.
====================
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