Analysis of Freedom's Battle-Song

Katharine Lee Bates 1859 (Falmouth) – 1929 (Wellesley)



RED, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
Stripes as red as blood well shed by many a hero gone.
Now 'tis ours to storm the towers of tyranny and wrong,
Freedom's sons who front the guns with Freedom's battle-song.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth,
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.
Red, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
White as peace for whose release our fighting gear we don;
Peace enchained, crushed, profaned, shall yet in beauty stand,
Yet shall bless with fruitfulness her desolated land.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.
Red, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
Blue as skies whose starry eyes shall see our victory won.
Freedom's sons and champions, to her our hearts are true,
We who fight for Human Right, and the Red,
White, Blue.
Fly the flag from dome and steeple,
Fly, the flag from home and school,
Flag of Freedom's birth,
While we battle that the rule
Of the people
By the people
For the people
Shall prevail o'er all the earth.


Scheme AbccDEFEDDDFAaggDEFEDDDFAhijiDEFEDDDF
Poetic Form
Metre 111011111 11111111100101 111011010110001 1011101110101 10111010 1011101 11101 1110101 1010 1010 1010 10110101 111011111 11111011010111 1111110101 11111011 10111010 1011101 11101 1110101 1010 1010 1010 10110101 111011111 111110111101001 10101001010111 1111101001 11 10111010 1011101 11101 1110101 1010 1010 1010 10110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,237
Words 238
Sentences 9
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 37
Lines Amount 37
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 979
Words per stanza (avg) 236
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:14 min read
133

Katharine Lee Bates

Katharine Lee Bates is remembered as the author of the words to the anthem America the Beautiful Bates was born in Falmouth Massachusetts and lived as an adult on Centre Street in Newton Massachusetts An historic plaque marks the site of her home The daughter of a Congregational pastor she graduated from Wellesley College in 1880 and for many years was a professor of English literature at Wellesley While teaching there she was elected a member of the newly formed Pi Gamma Mu honor society for the social sciences because of her interest in history and politics for which she also studied She lived at Wellesley with Katharine Coman who herself was a history and political economy teacher and founder of the Wellesley College Economics department The pair lived together for twenty-five years until Comans death in 1915 It is debated if this relationship was an intimate lesbian relationship as different sources maintain or a platonic relationship called sometimes Boston marriages as the local historical society of her birthplace maintain more…

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