America

Description

Samuel Francis Smith was born in 1801 in Massachusetts. He studied at Harvard, knew multiple foreign languages and worked as a translator before becoming an author, journalist and Baptist minister.

He is well-known for writing the patriotic song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (also known as “America”), but he is also the author of about 150 other hymns that have been compiled into “The Psalmist” collection.

“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” was written for the melody of the UK’s national anthem, “God Save the Queen”, but without any political connotation, as far as it seems. Smith simply liked the song, which felt very patriotic to him and, on a rainy day, he wrote new words for it.

The result became “America”, a patriotic song that invokes and promotes national pride and, through its religious author, asks God`s favor to protect the country. The lyrics focus on various common ideologies: appealing to the idea of liberty and freedom, national pride, equal rights for all and appealing to people’s beliefs – everything through pathos, emotions and feeling, as well as by focusing on ethos, the concept of ethics and moral. The unobstructed meaning of such big concepts like freedom and liberty may never be completely understood by humans, but patriotic songs are created to unite in difficult times.

“America” was first performed in 1832, at the Park Street Church in Boston, for a celebration of children’s Independence Day. Although “My Country ’tis of Thee” was sung in schools, as a way to begin the day, for more than 100 years, today only a handful of people remember it in its entirety. The young generation has only a vague notion of the melody, and most of the youngsters do not even make the connection with the United Kingdom’s national anthem.
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