- Joined
- May 12, 2010
- Location
- Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
This has always been one of my favorite patriotic songs. I remember singing it in grade school for music class.
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is also known as "America". Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics in 1831. The melody is "God Save the Queen". He was a student at Andover Theological Seminary at the time. He was working with his friend Lowell Mason. Smith gave the lyrics to Mason and it was first performed on July 4, 1831 at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston.
It was first published as 'America" in 1832. The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1931.
Original 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 ev'ry 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 thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country_'Tis_of_Thee
"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is also known as "America". Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics in 1831. The melody is "God Save the Queen". He was a student at Andover Theological Seminary at the time. He was working with his friend Lowell Mason. Smith gave the lyrics to Mason and it was first performed on July 4, 1831 at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston.
It was first published as 'America" in 1832. The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States before the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1931.
Original 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 ev'ry 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 thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country_'Tis_of_Thee