“The Stars and Stripes Forever” is one of my favorite patriotic tunes. My heart always soars when I hear it.

Many do not know that there are actual lyrics to the National March of the United States of America which was composed by the March King himself, John Philip Sousa, on Christmas Day in 1896.

While you’ll often hear, “”Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody’s mother…” the actual lyrics go like this:

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears ‘mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom’s shield and hope.
Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.

Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let tyrants remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

May you sing them proudly when you hear it this evening.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2020 at 17:00 and is filed under Morale. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.