Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNEH.
595
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
'Mid the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country they'd leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' 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.
Oh thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation; Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power 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 shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE.
The author of the words of "America" is Samuel Francis Smith, D.D., who was born in Boston, October 21, 1808, and was for many years pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton, Mass. Since his resignation he has been devoted to literary and religious pursuits. It is of him that Oliver Wendell Holmes says, in his poem entitled " The Boys:n
"And there's a nice fellow of excellent pith,— Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith, But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,— Just read on his medal,' My Country, of thee!'"
In a letter dated Newton Centre, Mass., June 11, 1861, Dr. Smith says: "The song was written at Andover during my student life there, I think in the winter of 1831-2. It was first used publicly at a Sunday-school celebration of July 4th, in the Park Street Church, Boston I had in my possession a quantity of German song-books, from which I was selecting such music as pleased me, and finding ' God save the King/ I proceeded to give it the ring of American republican patriotism."