Oh say can you see?

[semperfiona]

There's a group going around the country teaching people the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; they're visiting St Louis today. They claim 2 of 3 Americans don't know the words. I want to know where they are finding these people. Are they counting children and brand-new immigrants who wouldn't have had a chance to learn them yet? Or are they counting people who only know the first verse as "not knowing" the words? I'm boggled. I can't imagine growing up in the US and not knowing them (well, the first verse anyhow). So. A poll.

[Poll #672326]

I'm curious, also, whether non-USians "typically" know the words to their own national anthems, and how that might differ by country of origin. Please feel free to answer in comments.

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

And fish in the sky, and a big monkey pie... </izzard>

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether most people know the words to the first verse of "God Save the Queen", but I really doubt it. I could run a poll of my own if you're interested.

[semperfiona]

Sure!

As for me, I know bits of it but not the whole thing. I know the melody quite well, but of course there's a different set of words that go to it here in USA.

[karenthecroccy.livejournal.com]

I know Canada's! :)

[curgoth]

I can only get about two verses into "Oh Canada" - the rest, in school, would sometimes be in English, and sometimes in French, so I don't have the same grasp on them.

[semperfiona]

*chuckle* I know the first two *lines* of "Oh Canada".

[ohari.livejournal.com]

There's a Moose in it, right? And Snow and Hockey?

[notshakespeare.livejournal.com]

I also know that the first 2 notes are a dotted eight sixteenth and not a triplet the way most people sing it.

I had that beaten into my head by a Canadian conductor in college.

[semperfiona]

Which two? "O-oh"? I wouldn't recognize the difference between a dotted-eighth and sixteenth and a triplet without a metronome.

[notshakespeare.livejournal.com]

Yep. The first note should be 3 times longer than the second, not 2 times longer.

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

I know the first TWO verses of the Star Spangled Banner, but that wasn't an option.

[semperfiona]

Where did you learn them?

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

Mad Magazine, in the early 1980s IIRC.

Somehow, I think I should be ashamed of this fact, but I'm not.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

I knew the first and fourth verses. I followed your link to the others, and re-read them -- and now I'm all depressed again.

"The hireling and slave" appear to be alive and well in our Administration even as I type this. O would that we could show them "the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave."

But, let's not forget that anyone who criticizes the government in a weblog is now defined as a terrorist.

[jilly-bear.livejournal.com]

Judging by the number of entertainers that sing them incorrectly at baseball games, I'm not surprised that there are many folks who don't know them. I was going to say that the Olympic athletes don't know them either judging by the way their lips move during the playing of the national anthem when they get a gold medal but I have to cut them a break. If I had just won gold I might not remember them either!

I thought the verse we all knew was

[leenoox.livejournal.com]

the *second* one. Or is that one of the other big patrotic songs?

(Do other countries have as many of those as we do?)

Re: I thought the verse we all knew was

[semperfiona]

Must be one of the other songs, because the verse we all know is definitely the first one.