— by Margie Doyle —

Lady Liberty walks a tightrope

Lady Liberty walks a tightrope

Were you, like me, taught the words to the “Star Spangled Banner” and told we MUST sing them with our hand over our heart whenever the song was sung publicly?

If it’s started in the right key, anyone can sing the song, but the meaning of the words seem more remote these days to the lucky majority of us who’ve never experienced war, battles or bombardment. So, as our national song, the anthem by which we live, is it still relevant?

Please read through the following explanation, the original first verse, and then my humble alternative, and then consider participating in our contest to make the words of the national anthem more relevant today. We’ll have a vote on it and announce the winner (which could also be the original author!) on July 6.

We’ll also post the 2nd and 3rd verses written by Francis Scott Key over the next few days!

“Our national anthem was written by Francis Scott Key during the attack of the British on Fort McHenry, Sept. 13, 1814 [during the War of 1812, or the Second Revolutionary War]. Key had gone out from Baltimore to the British fleet to obtain the release of a friend, held prisoner. He arrived on the eve of the bombardment of the city by the British and was detained on his own vessel lest the plans of the attack be disclosed. All day and night he watched the battle anxiously from the deck. When morning dawned and showed the Stars and Stripes still floating over the Fort, he was deeply moved and quickly wrote the words of the poem.
They were later set to the tune of an old English drinking song, “Anacreon in Heaven,” a song widely sung in this country at that time. (from The Fireside book of Folk Songs, selected and edited by Margaret Bradford Boni).

“The Star Spangled Banner” words by Francis Scott Key (1814)

Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad strips and bright stars, tho’ 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 tho’ 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?

Please accept our challenge to suggest other words to the National Anthem and submit them here as a comment or by email to editor@theorcasonian.com

We’ll post all submissions and let people vote and announce the People’s Favorite on Monday, July 6.

“O Say Can You See? in a  Minor Key”  words by Margie Doyle
Written after the heart-breaking, eye-opening horror of Charleston Church Massacre, and after 14 years of foreign wars, imprisonment of our poor and white-collar crime.
O Say Can You See after Charleston’s rage
what so proudly we hailed in our country’s early age?
That flag’s stripes and bright stars still endure, though the fight
Is with hatred and greed and the profiteers of war.
We fight on through the glare of the brutal and blind
For we choose to prevail, not succumbing to our fears.
O say can we still promise liberty and compassion?
Is our land still truly free and the home of the brave?
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