A Story For The Occasion

Here is somethin I got in an email a few years ago and I thought it was worth keepin, and now I thank it is worth sharin too..

OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM....IN GOD DO WE TRUST!

Unless you know all four stanzas of "The Star Spangled Banner" you may find
this most interesting. Perhaps most of you didn't realize what Francis Scott
Key's profession was or what he was doing on a ship. This is a good brush-up
on your history.

(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."

NO REFUGE COULD SAVE: BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV

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, DC. 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
Beans, 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 Beans 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 Beans 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.

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 I 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 dauntingly 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. Pay attention to the words.
And don't let them ever take it away ... not one word of it.
AND IT'S SUNG IN ENGLISH !!!