Anthems

Anthems

    Whatever your country, it might have become something unconscious, or so it would seem in the U.S.  The singing of our national anthem starts every baseball game, most every sports event come to think of it.  Big, small, sometimes a great singer, sometimes a local child.  In the audience, you tend to quietly sing along, just as you did in school.  But somehow after all these years, I began thinking about this national anthem, trying to put myself into the head of Francis Scott Key and wondering what would cause him to create, write down and remember such a song, all while in battle...it must have been both horrific and monumental.  But the history is a bit different...if you know the tune, imagine singing these words: 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.  It's not some set of words that I made up, for that is the third of the four stanzas from the original poem written by Key, and yes, officially part of the national anthem of the United States.

    So here's my romantic version: amidst a hazy battlefield clouded with smoke and life-threatening gunfire and cannons (this was 1812 after all, a time of war and still lingering resentment by the British of revolution, and in this case the U.S. fighting to break away from a strong naval attack by the British navy), a tired soldier grows sleepy in his trench or hiding place as darkness descends, the sky only briefly illuminated by the spark of a powder rifle or a blast from a ship or fort.  But as the "dawn's early light" arrives, he rubs his dirt-filled eyes, blinks several times and sees "broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous night," an amazing sight of the flag, symbolizing victory but not in the battle itself but in just surviving the onslaught; the fort was still standing, as were those inside, and so was the flag.  "...the bombs bursting in air gave proof...that our flag was still there."  It's a romantic dream of many nations or groups at war or rebellion, their own flag surviving and/or often being proudly raised in defiance, a symbol to all that a change in order has taken place...the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima during WW II.

    Surprisingly, the U.S. would not even decide to have a "national" anthem until over a hundred years later.  The songs sung were primarily adaptations of British songs (the Stars Spangled Banner's melody is actually an old British melody from the 1700s), songs such as My Country 'Tis of Thee (a mirror of God Save the Queen).  Several composers offered their works for an anthem, including John Philip Sousa (he and four others --long vanished from American memory-- would work out the final arrangement of the Stars Spangled Banner); but it was Key's poetic version that remained.  Says Wikipedia, Key was actually a negotiator and sharing dinner aboard a British ship as he and John Stuart Skinner began their efforts to secure the release of some American prisoners; and it was from the safety of that ship that they watched the bombardment and attack continue, a seemingly all-out attack on Fort Henry (the anthem-poem was originally titled In Defence of Fort M'Henry), written when Key saw the fort's flag still fluttering.  Key and Skinner had heard rumors of the attack when they first boarded the British ship and actually were held prisoners themselves while the week-long attack began and was underway.  Seeing the flag still waving after the smoke and noise had cleared, Key began writing his poem on an old letter he had in his pocket, and says Wikipedia: Much of the idea of the poem, including the flag imagery and some of the wording, is derived from an earlier song by Key, also set to the tune of The Anacreontic Song.  The song, known as "When the Warrior Returns", was written in honor of Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart on their return from the First Barbary War.

    No matter, really.  One can delve into the history of one's flag and anthem (although rarely does a history class do so) and discover all sorts of background information, all usually patriotic and fulfilling the purpose of a "national" anthem.  The upcoming summer Olympics will expose many of us to all sorts of anthems, some unfamiliar, some vaguely familiar and some quite stirring.  In our own country, the interspersed scenes of emotional attachment were strong as Lady Gaga opened the Super Bowl with her rendition of the Stars Spangled Banner.  But standing on an Olympic podium or being at a major event in another country, one can witness the same emotional stirrings going through thousands of other people.  In each nation, each country, a national anthem proves uniting, a cause to not only defend but to remind...watching The Martian, the tale of recovering a stranded astronaut, an almost hopeless effort due to both distance and logistics, one can fictionally watch the world come together, this sharing of our species struggling to save one of its own.  At such times, one can imagine an animal species threatened, perhaps celebrating the same emotional flow...elephants or lions saving one of their own, a cluster of ants furiously digging underground to save the colony from footsteps or sprays.

    When one thinks of a national anthem, perhaps we should also think of a "world" anthem, a song and its words so meaningful that it would stretch far beyond our own species, a song truly making us proud of our planet, our home.  Animal and plant, rock and ocean, it is all our life...imagine the next sporting event or homecoming or inauguration talking not of victory in battle but of victory in life, a gladness to be alive and to support all life.  Life in our universe might prove to be a rare thing, at least to our method of living.  Air and water, carbon and pressure...none are out there that we know of.  Yet.  Perhaps on our next venture in space we will discover such places, perhaps not.  Perhaps we will discover new life; and perhaps we will simply look downward, back at ourselves, and discover what we have here...life, in all forms.  A true "national" anthem.