Anniversary of American Independence
July 4 Tune Rule Britannia
1 Hail great Republic of the World,
2 The rising Empire of the West,
3 Where fam’d Columbus, of mighty mind inspir’d,
4 Gave tortur’d Europe scenes of rest.
5 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free,
6 The land of Love and Liberty.
2
7 Beneath thy spreading mantling Vine,
8 Beside thy flow’ry groves and springs,
9 And on thy lofty, thy lofty, mountains brow,
10 May all thy sons and fair ones sing,
11 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free,
12 The land of Love and Liberty.
3
13 From (thou) thee may hated Discord fly,
14 With all her dark, her dreary train,
15 And whilst thy mighty, thy mighty, Waters roll
16 May heart endearing concord reign.
17 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free
18 The land of Love and Liberty
4
19 Far as the vast Atlantic pours
20 Its loaded wave to human sight,
21 There may thy starry, thy starry; standard shine,
22 The constellation of thy rights.
23 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free
24 The land of Love and Liberty.
5
25 May ages as they rise proclaim
26 The glories of thy natal day,
27 And restless Europe, from thy example learn
28 To love, to rule, and to obey.
29 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free
30 The land of Love and Liberty.
6
31 Let Laureats sing their birth-day odes,
32 Or how their death-like thunder’s hurl’d,
33 Tis ours the Charter, the Charter, ours alone
34 To sing the birth-day of a World
35 Be thou for ever, for ever, great and free
36 The land of Love and Liberty.
T.P.
About this text
Author: Thomas Paine
Themes:
Genres:
song
Headnote:
The manuscript is located in the New York Historical’s Thomas Paine Collection.
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2026. 5 Volumes.
Editorial principles
The text is that of the source edition. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
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