344. My country, ’tis of thee
Samuel F. Smith, 1808-95
The best loved of our patriotic hymns, widely used, and deeply imbedded in the American soul.
His Harvard classmate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, saluted Smith in a poem written for their class reunion on the 30th anniversary of their graduation as follows:
And there’s a nice youngster of excellent pith—
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith:
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free—
Just read on his medal, “My country,” “of thee.”
The inspiration for this hymn came from the reading of a German patriotic poem sent him by Lowell Mason (See [348]). The author, then a young student at Andover Theological Seminary, says:
I instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own, adapted to the tune. Picking up a scrap of waste paper which lay near me, I wrote at once, probably within half an hour, the hymn, “America,” as it is now known everywhere. The whole hymn stands today as it stood on the bit of waste paper.
The hymn was first sung at a children’s festival in Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1832.
For comments on the author, Samuel F. Smith, see [Hymn 324].
MUSIC. AMERICA is also the tune used with the national anthem of Britain, “God save the king.” The melody is of obscure origin. It has been known in England for several centuries. In Denmark it was used toward the end of the 18th century for a national hymn, “Heil dir dem liebenden,” and in Germany it was widely used in Prussian and other northern states to patriotic words. In earlier days in the United States, the words, “Come Thou Almighty King,” were sung to this tune. The tune has thus nearly come to be an International Anthem.
Henry Carey, 1692-1743, an English musician of considerable ability, known as the composer of the song, “Sally in Our Alley,” is sometimes credited with this tune but the evidence is disputed. He wrote songs and poems for light and burlesque operas but always with regard for decency and good manners. His life was ended by suicide.