My Country, 'Tis of Thee

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"My Country, 'Tis of Thee," also known as "America," is an American patriotic song. The melody, based on the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen," has been used by many other countries.

The lyrics to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" were written in 1831 by Reverend Samuel Francis Smith of Boston's Park Street Church while at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts. The song served as a de facto national anthem for much of the 19th century.

Lyrics

My Country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring.

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love.

I love thy rocks and rills,

Thy woods and templed hills;

My heart with rapture fills

Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,

And ring from all the trees

Sweet freedom's song.

Let rocks their silence break,

Let all that breathe partake;

Let mortal tongues awake;

The sound prolong.

(In one of the original texts, the fifth and sixth lines are transposed and slightly altered, reading: "Let all that breathes partake;/Let mortal tongues awake.")

Our fathers' God, to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright

With freedom's holy light;

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God, our King! A-men.

One verse, crossed out by Smith in original manuscripts, is generally omitted. Originally the third verse, it reads:

No more shall tyrants here

With haughty steps appear

And soldier bands.

No more shall tyrants dread

Above the patriot dead;

No more our blood be shed

By alien hands.

Cultural references

Martin Luther King Jr. quoted this song during his "I Have A Dream" speech.
Ani Difranco referred to this song ironically in her song "Tis Of Thee", which includes the line, "My country 'tis of thee, to take shots at each other on talk show TV."
George Orwell also wrote in Nineteen Eighty-Four that Oceania's national anthem was titled "Oceania, 'Tis for Thee", a name which appears to be derived from "My Country, 'Tis of Thee".
A song supporting women's suffrage, "The New America," is a spin-off of this song. It reflects a common suffrage argument--that giving women the vote simply fulfilled the promise of 1776.
George and Ira Gershwin wrote the 1931 political satire musical Of Thee I Sing, but the "thee" in this case was not the USA but rather the President's romantic interest.

External links

[Review of a book about the song from the Journal of American History]
[New England Music Archive]
[CyberHymnal page] - contains history, lyrics, and infinitely-looping MIDI music.

Patriotic music of the United States
"America the Beautiful" \| "Ballad of the Green Berets" \| "Battle Cry of Freedom" \| "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" \| "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" \| "For The Dear Old Flag, I Die" \| "God Bless America" \| "God Bless the USA" \| "Hail Columbia" \| "Hail to the Chief" \| "The Liberty Bell" \| "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" \| "Over There" \| "The Stars and Stripes Forever" \| "The Star-Spangled Banner" \| "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" \| "This is My Country" \| "This Land Is Your Land" \| "Yankee Doodle" \| "The Yankee Doodle Boy" \| "You're a Grand Old Flag" \| "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

Patriotic music of the United States

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