*clears throat* From memory, in honour of the day...

[camwyn]

o Canada
Our home and native land
True patriot love
In all thy sons command!
With beating hearts we see thee rise
The True North strong and free
From far and wide, o Canada,
We stand on guard for thee!

God keep our land
Glorious and free
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!


... shoot, it was 'glowing', not 'beating'... oh well. Happy Canada Day, y'all.


(ETA: For those of you who were thinking of getting sniffy because I'm an American and I memorized the English words to the Canadian national anthem, I can sing all three verses of ours that are still in common use- and I just listed off all fifty U. S. states, from memory, in less than three minutes. Deal.)

Comments

[silly-dan.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

O Canada!
Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint
de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

I'm American and I memorized the Canadian national anthem. It's better than ours, and it gives me something to sing at hockey games.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Include the mandatory note that nine out of ten Canadians are convinced it goes
The True North strong and free
And stand on guard, o Canada,
We stand on guard for thee!

and that when I learned it many decades ago 'God keep our land' wasn't there. Whether it's crept in since I don't know, but I hope not.

(Also in mondegreen land, I always heard the French line as Et ta valeur, deux fois trompée. What the FLQ hath wrought.)

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Am I allowed to say that I think O Canada is a really stupid song? It even makes Advance Australia Fair seem less stupid by comparison. Both The Star Spangled Banner and God Save the Sovereign of Appropriate Sex are decent poetry, from an era when they wrote decent anthems, even though they have not much more than a nodding relationship with their tunes.

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Why, thankee kindly, m'dear.
We'd surely welcome you up here, y'know. Hell, they took me in ...

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, when I was a kid, I memorized all four stanzas of The Star-Spangled Banner. I was inspired by an Isaac Asimov mystery in which a German spy posing as an American is caught because the interrogator plays the game of "You say the first thing that comes to mind" with him. The interrogator says, "the terror of flight," and the spy comes back with "gloom of the grave."

As the interrogator pointed out, only a spy would have studied the national anthem so intently, so he wouldn't be caught not knowing it.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Oh, and how many verses of 'O Canada' do you know?

O Canada, where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread, and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us, thy broad domain, from East to Western sea,
Thou land of hope, for all who toil, the true North strong and free!

Et cetera.