StalinsNotDead's Journal: British poem from the American Civil War era

The Star Spangled Banner that blows broad and brave
O'er the home of the free, o'er the hut of the slave

Whose folds every year, broad and broader have grown
Till they shadow both artic and tropical zone
From the Sierra Nevada to Florida's shore
And, like Oliver Twist, are still asking for more...

Bravo

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

N/T

Re:

[StalinsNotDead]

Thanks. It's nice to get a compliment from someone who posts articles that I've enjoyed (or were angered at) reading.

Something wrong with that

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I thought Oliver Twist was written in the 1870s....

Re:

[johndiii]

Wikipedia says 1838 for Oliver Twist. The same thing occurred to me. :-)

Interesting criticism, though, considering the recent interaction between Britain and China [wikipedia.org].

Irony

[Shadow Wrought]

Though I do find it a bit ironic considering Britain's own Imperialism. Cool find though;-)

Re:

[FroMan]

I was thinking the same thing. While we may have our hands in many things now, we were actually quite isolationist pre-WWI. We may have been expansionist for the continent we were on, but largely we were taking out what were though to be savages at the time.

I think whoever wrote the poem was likely someone who was bitter about us successfully throwing off the British Empire. In short, a troll of the day.

Re:

[StalinsNotDead]

we were actually quite isolationist pre-WWI

What about the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Filipino War? Or the Kingdom of Hawai'i? Or Matt Perry and Japan?

I think whoever wrote the poem was likely someone who was bitter about us successfully throwing off the British Empire

Or he was thinking about what might happen when they're done with one continent.

I'm not trying to instigate a fight. Just trying to stimulate discussion. And I'm not anti-American. I'm just disappointed with the path the nation too

Re:

[FroMan]

Well, I originally intended to put "relatively" instead of "quite". Many of the European nations at the time were all over the globe, Africa and South/Central America were not being actively populated with American of the time. Perhaps because we had so much of our own territory to invest in, and an ocean between us and Europe.

As far as the troll comment goes, I still see it as little less. I highly doubt that one at that point would truly consider the US an over arching world power. And to really to pr

Re:

[StalinsNotDead]

I don't know when the poem was written. Presumably when slavery was still a practised institution.

I don't know if the author was forseeing the rise of a superpower, but rather observed American expansionism on its own continent (sometimes overtly violently through war, other times by non-war violence, and sometimes peacefully). Louisiana purchase, Spain's sale of Florida (on the condition of non interference in then-Spanish controlled Texas), then formerly Mexican-controlled Texas, Mexican American war and