Showing posts with label US Veterans Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Veterans Day. Show all posts

Saturday, November 14, 2009

US Veteran's Day: Wrapping Up the Week

Here is an oral history of our National Anthem.

Thanks go out to a post at Composing My Thoughts which brought this one to my attention.

There are four verses to the Star-Spangled Banner, by the way.  You will find them all below the video.




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 thru 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 through 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?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists 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 in 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!

And where is that band who so vauntingly 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 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 victory and peace, may the heav'n 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
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

US Veterans Day: November 11, 2009

Veteran's Day in the United States, unlike other holidays, is typically celebrated on November 11, unless it falls on a weekend, while many other national holidays are transferred to the nearest Monday so we can have a three day weekend.

All for Hymn is celebrating a bit early this year, "lest we forget..."

Those who have fought and are fighting for our freedom need to be remembered.  Let's make this a Veterans Week.

Orson Wells tells of the origins of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, then a group of high school choirs and a grade school choir sing it.





I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.