Independence Day

As a college freshman, Professor Elledge always expected that we would use the dictionary to look up every word in a poem that we didn't understand explicitly. We were never to make assumptions or work off of context. This was good advice as I made my way through poems like Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats where words like Sylvan, Tempe, dales of Arcady, timbrels, citadel, doth, and Cold Pastoral had me frustrated. He was right; when I understood the words, the subtleties revealed themselves boldly and the poems, read again, rang with new meaning. I've tried to keep up this habit when reading poetry to this day.

So on this day when we salute these United States (in troubled times), I study our National Anthem and look up the word rampart, never quite knowing what that meant. I had imagined a grassy knoll but realize that rampart is a military term which carries on the theme of the rockets, bombs bursting in air, and the perilous fight. I tend to forget this when I hear someone like Whitney or Mariah or even this past year when Jordin sang at Super Bowl 2008. I get the chills, not from the words but from the delivery. Enjoy this clip and I hope you get to enjoy some fireworks tonight. As for me, I may or may not get to enjoy them from the deck of the Pearly Jones AFH. That's the plan, however.




O' say, can you see

By the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,

Through the perilous fight.

O'r the ramparts we watched

Were so gallantly streaming.

And the rocket's red glare,

The bombs bursting in air

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there.

O' say does that star spangled banner yet wave.

O'r the land of the free and the home of the brave.

National Anthem of the United State of America

Happy Independence Day!