02 January 2017

The Star-Spangled Banner, third stanza


There have been a lot of first stanzas of the Star-Spangled Banner sung at football games this week.  I had to look up the third stanza; I don't believe I've ever heard it sung.
"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."
Political cartoon via Jobsanger.  Full lyrics (four stanzas) here.

2 comments:

  1. Then again, what would anyone expect from a country whose entire economy was based on slavery- even the Ivy League bastions of higher learning were netting profits from that "most peculiar institution."

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