Anthems

O Canada! our home and native land!
True patriot-love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
 

 

O Canada! where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread, and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea.
The land of hope for all who toil,
The True North strong and free!

Now, that's a national anthem to be proud of.

A few weeks ago, I attended a game between the Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays.  (The Mariners' first pitch was hit out of the park; they committed three of their four errors in the first three innings.)  Both national anthems were performed, of course, with the lyrics to both displayed on the screen. 

First "O Canada."  One notices immediately that the song is actually singable!  You don't need to be trained professionally in opera.  But beyond that, the lyrics are -- for the most part -- stirring and meaningful.  True North, indeed!  Great prairies, lordly rivers, land of hope.  These are attributes in a country that arouse pride.

Then the "Star Spangled Banner."  What can I say?  I don't want to belabor its problems.  Folks have complained about it for years.  Its musical range makes it difficult to sing, of course.  But beyond that, it was never intended to be a national anthem.  It was written as a poem commemorating a specific battle in the War of 1812 -- not one of our better wars .  It was set to the tune of an English drinking song, "Anacreon in Heaven" -- that's ok, lots of tunes are cannibalized for various reasons.  But still!  It didn't even become our national anthem until 1931.

What do we think of when we recall the lyrics?  Rockets red glare!  Bombs bursting in air!  Right?  Wars are sometimes necessary, as are bombs and rockets.  But do we really want to perpetuate these military images as the supreme image of America? 

The anthem has four verses.  We are nearly always subjected only to the first -- which goes on quite long enough as it is.  We need not ponder lines from later verses:

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.

And the minds of our chronically warlike presidents probably would not be additionally inflamed by recalling:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

I don't propose scrapping "The Star Spangled Banner."  Its use is sanctified by history; too many citizens would be outraged and grieved if we were to jettison it at this late date.

But if only Congress had chosen "America the Beautiful," instead, back in 1931.  That lovely song is as singable as "O Canada!"  And it points to the qualities of America that truly arouse pride in all citizens:  "amber waves of grain," "purple mountains majesty," "the fruited plain," "brotherhood, from sea to shining sea."

Some phrases might seem tinged with irony: "thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears."  But these lines at least represent our aspirations, if not yet our accomplishments.  And in 2013, our cities do gleam compared with 1931; human tears, although still plentiful, now perhaps result more from frustrated aspirations than, as they did then, from existential problems of starvation, disease, and abject homelessness.

In any event, with the rest of the crowd, I was happy to stand for both anthems before the Toronto game.  It's been another bad year for Seattle.  More than half the fans appeared to be British Columbians sporting Blue Jay colors, fans who had driven all the way down for a midweek game.  They showed lots of enthusiasm. 

Which makes me wonder why Major League Baseball still hasn't expanded to Vancouver?