Star-Spangled Banner: Poem Analysis

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“Star spangled Banner” was written by Marvin Gaye and composed by John Stafford smith . In 1814 Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics while he detained on a british ship in baltimore. Key who was on a diplomatic mission was inspired after witnessing the American victory at Fort McHenry which Key believed was an impossible task. And before it became our anthem, it was an American drinking tune, too. Back in the days before national media, one of the best ways for a politico to reach the common man was through catchy tunes sung at bars and parties. So while second president John Adams was campaigning for reelection against Thomas Jefferson in 1800, he borrowed the old Anacreon tune for a propaganda poem called “Adams and Liberty.” The poem …show more content…

added a verse. Despite using the words “the land of the free,” Francis Scott Key had been a slave owner, and members of the Confederate Army wanted to claim his anthem. Holmes, an influential writer from Boston, wrote new lyrics advocating that American slaves be unchained. Holmes’ addition now appears in most official publications of the lyrics.The first sporting event to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” was a baseball game in 1862 in Brooklyn, New York. The anthem was performed at the first World Series in 1903 in Boston; many believe it was first performed at the 1918 World Series. Although it was a popular patriotic song throughout the mid and late 19th century and into the 20th, “The Star-Spangled Banner” did not become the official national anthem until 1931. That came about following a long, intensive lobbying effort by patriotic and veterans groups led by the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.On January 31, 1931, the VFW presented the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee a petition containing some five million signatures urging adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. The House approved a bill to do so and the Senate followed on March 3, 1931. That same day President Herbert Hoover signed into law a measure designating “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States, eight decades after the death of the man who wrote the words in 1814.One of the most famous renditions