And the rocks shall raise their head
Of his deeds to tell?
This poem, written about 1823, held a place many years in school-books, and was one of the favorite school-boy declamations. Whenever sung on patriotic occasions, the music was sure to be “Bruce's Address.” That typical Scotch tune was played on the Highland bag-pipes long before Burns was born, and known as “Hey tuttie taite.” “Heard on Fraser's hautboy, it used to fill my eyes with tears,” Burns himself once wrote.
Rev. John Pierpont was born in Litchfield, Ct., April 6, 1785. He was graduated at Yale, 1804, taught school, studied law, engaged in trade, and finally took a course in theology and became a Unitarian minister, holding the pastorate of Hollis St. Church, Boston, thirty-six years. He travelled in the East, and wrote “Airs of Palestine.” His poem, “The Yankee Boy,” has been much quoted. Died in Medford, Mass., Aug. 26, 1866.
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“MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE.”
This simple lyric, honored so long with the name “America,” and the title “Our National Hymn,” 389 / 337 was written by Samuel Francis Smith, while a theological student at Andover, Feb. 2, 1832. He had before him several hymn and song tunes which Lowell Mason had received from Germany, and, knowing young Smith to be a good linguist, had sent to him for translation. One of the songs, of national character, struck Smith as adaptable to home use if turned into American words, and he wrote four stanzas of his own to fit the tune.
Mason printed them with the music, and under his magical management the hymn made its debut on a public occasion in Park St. Church, Boston, July 4, 1832. Its very simplicity, with its reverent spirit and easy-flowing language, was sure to catch the ear of the multitude and grow into familiar use with any suitable music, but it was the foreign tune that, under Mason's happy pilotage, winged it for the western world and launched it on its long flight.
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,