Suburban Charm: Happy Fourth of July!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Happy Fourth of July!

O 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 through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The original "Star Spangled Banner" in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

I love our national anthem.

It was originally written as a poem by in 1814 by Frances Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in the Chesapeake Bay during the war of 1812.

Bombardment of Fort Mchenry, c.1814 Giclee Print by John Bower

I always get choked up during this verse...

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

I imagine the soldiers during that night, probably feeling frightened, exhausted, passionate, fierce, maybe hopeless at times, yet brave and standing strong for every individual in our nation, and the feelings that must have overcome them the next morning when our flag was still there.

This verse also reminds me of what our military men and women must feel today when in combat...and that so many men and women before us fought for the birth of our nation and continue to protect our freedom.

The poem was later set to music to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith, and was not adopted as our national anthem until a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931, which was signed by President Herbert Hoover.