The Star Spangled Banner

Goshen College in Indianahas banned the National Anthem at its sporting events because they see it as too violent in nature.Perhaps this is a big time to reflecton the originsofournation`s anthem.

After the British bombing of Fort McHenry in 1814, Sir Francis Scott Key wrote a poem after seeing the flag still standing. We`ve all sung the lyrics numerous times with pride.

Many of us, however, know so little about this song deemed the "Star Spangled Banner".

Almost all of us love the lyrics to our national anthem, but few of us recognize that the lyrics we sing are merely the 1st stanza of the original. When Francis Scott Key was held on the British ship, it is said, that the dawn after the 25 hour bombing of Fort McHenry, he was capable to see the giant flag flying over the fort. He was directly inspired to publish his poem originally titled "Defense of Fort McHenry" and so he did, ironically, upon the British flag ship HMS Tonnant. It was from this gigantic flag that the national anthem gets its name "Star Spangled Banner".

In 1814 the national flag`s characteristics were very unspecific. At that time, the just requirements were that it had red and white stripe and it could have stars to be states. The design was usually left to the commissioner or the designer. In this case, the designer, Mary Pickersgill, was granted free reign as to how she devised the flag. The sole condition she was given was the sizing of the flags she made. Gen. John S. Stricker commissioned two flags to be made; one smaller storm flag which flew through the bombardment, and the larger "Great Garrison Flag" which was flown the dawn after. The pin that Key would have seen would be the latter. It measured 30 feet high by 42 feet wide.

The day after Key returned he had many prints made of the poem and handed them out in the streets of Baltimore, but in Baltimore it did not stay. Newspapers in Boston and Philadelphia soon picked it up and printed it as good with Keys` addition that it should be sung to the popular drinking tune, "The Aacreontic Song". It rapidly became popular across state lines and was being sung throughout the new nation with great pride and celebration. It was nevertheless a new idea for the states to unite, but this strain did exactly that. Whether it was sung on New York fairgrounds, or in Kentucky tavern, the anthem meant the like thing - that we were both formidable and united states. Yet, it was not our national anthem.

In 1889, the Secretary of the Navy Benjamine F. Tracy made "The Star Spangled Banner" the official call for fostering the flag. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ordered that it be played at military events and that the military base at attention while it was being played. The call was popular at baseball games and other sporting events; most notably during the seventh-inning stretch during the 1918 World Series. Famous American composer John Philip Sousa traveled the state having his band play the tune, and later petitioned that the strain become our national anthem. Retractors argued that it was too difficult to sing, that many of the language were forgotten, and that few even knew what Fort McHenry was. Nevertheless, in 1931, after days of congressional debate, Hebert Hoover`s signature made "The Star Spangled Banner" our official national anthem.

There`s something almost the hymn that transcends Key`s inspiring moment, Sousa`s symphonic rendition, or the flag being raised at Iwo Jima. It`s limited to apiece of us in a different way. It is what gets us angry when somebody doesn`t stand for it being played, when the lyrics are butchered, or when it is just blatantly disrespected. We have fond memories of standing in school before to its playing. We`re proud when we see our kids responding to that familiar music with their hand over their substance without even being told to. We snap up when we see someone else moved by the song`s melody.

When our anthem plays, we might not speculate on the lyrics. Perhaps we don`t see "the bombs bursting in air" literally. Few even recognize that ramparts are defensive fortifications, above which the standard was "gallantly streaming". The hymn is beyond lyrics now. It is a unifying tune that brings Us together in song, forgetting the boundaries that set us apart. When our anthem is played we ascend into a higher state with eyes gazed upon our flag, that by G-d`s grace is silence there.

Read all of the original lyrics here.