This Is My Country
For the Impressions album with title song by Curtis Mayfield, see This Is My Country (album).
"This Is My Country" is an American patriotic folk song composed in 1940. The lyrics are by Don Raye and the music is by Al Jacobs.
The folk song begins slowly, opening with:
- What difference if I hail from North or South
- Or from the East or West?
- My heart is filled with love
- For all of these.
- I only know I swell with pride
- And deep within my breast
- I thrill to see Old Glory
- Paint the breeze.
It then swings into a march tempo for the verse.
The song is made notable by the fact that it honors both native-born Americans and immigrants. The first verse reads:
- This is my country
- Land of my birth
- This is my country
- Grandest on Earth
While the second verse (sung on a repeat, as the introduction is not repeated) instead reads:
- This is my country
- Land of my choice
- This is my country
- Hear my proud voice.
Both versions join together at the ending:
- I pledge thee my allegiance
- America the bold
- For this is my country
- To have and to hold