Welcome to Slow American English, the podcast for learners of American English.
I'm your host, Karen Toliver.
This is episode number 1603, the national anthem.
Today's episode is about America's national anthem.
Its name is the Star -Spangled Banner.
It's a song about America's flag.
It was written on September 13th, 1814 by Francis Scott Key, a successful Washington DC lawyer.
It has four verses though only the first verse is sung at any official function.
The lyrics to Verse 1 are as follows, O 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 through the perilous fight, Or 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, or the land of the free and the home of the brave, because the English used in the song is very old and Key used lots of poetic language.
The lyrics are very hard to understand.
Basically, it says, do you see the flag this morning that was flying last night?
It flew throughout this overnight battle and we saw it because of light from the bombs.
Does the flag still fly today?
Did want to know the melody and words of the other verses, many recordings with lyrics can be found at online sites such as YouTube.
It's helpful to know the situation in which key wrote the words in order to better understand their meaning.
In June of 1812, America declared war on Great Britain for trade disputes and other disagreements.
This conflict, known as the War of 1812, lasted for two and a half years.
In August of 1814, British troops invaded the Washington, D .C.
area, burning many buildings including the White House.
During these attacks, they a prominent surgeon and took him to Baltimore on a ship.
President James Madison sent Francis Scott Key to Baltimore to negotiate the surgeon's release.
Key boarded the British ship in Baltimore's harbor and successfully bargained for the prisoner.
But the British did not allow him to return to until the next day.
They planned an attack on Fort McHenry, a fortress on the water in Baltimore, and did not want Key to give the Americans any information he might have about their plans.
Therefore, Key had to stay eight miles away on his boat in the harbor during the fight.
He saw the bombs and missiles being launched from the British ships at Fort McHenry.
The attack continued overnight.
Key used a spyglass the next morning to see whose flag flew over Fort McHenry.
If the British flag was there, it meant the British had won the fight.
However, Key saw that the American flag was still flying, which meant that the Americans had won the battle.
An interesting side note.
The flag that Key saw through his spyglass after the battle still exists.
It is preserved and on display at the Smithsonian Institute Museum in Washington, D .C.
He wrote the lyrics to the Star -Spangled Banner on the back of a letter he had in his pocket.
The original name of the song was titled Defense of Fort McHenry.
The melody he had in mind was from a British pub song and is the same melody used today.
The song became very popular because of its patriotism.
In fact, people still call America's flag the Star -Spangled Banner.
And they still think of their country as the land of the free and the home of the brave. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson announced that the song should be played at all official state functions.
However, it wasn't until 1931 that the song was adopted as America's National Anthem.
Now, it is played at the beginning of State functions, sporting events, and many other gatherings.
That's the podcast for this time.
Slow American English is written and produced by Karen Tolliver, copyright 2015.
The music for this podcast is written and performed by SW Campbell and used by permission.
The opening theme song is Junie Says, the ending music is Beans and Dirty Rice.
Find these songs and more music by this artist at www .soundclick .com www .slowamericanenglish .net for a free transcript of this podcast. There you can also download additional materials for a small fee.
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This has been Slow American English.
I'm Karen Tolliver.
Thank you for listening.
It's a shame that I didn't do that Right
