What exactly does the phrase “’tis of thee” mean? You know, as in “my country ’tis of thee.” I never have understood it.
The Library of Congress, by the way, has a page about the song. The music is from the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the Queen” (or King as might be), published as early as 1745.
Here’s Aretha.
The meaning is simple. “’tis of thee” = “it’s of thee”
My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
The third line simply restates what was being said
before the interruption of “sweet land of liberty.”
People will be talking about that hat for the rest of the year.
Darn! Eric beat me!
The musical setting also doesn’t do the poetry any favors. The other national song weirdness is that the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner is a series of questions.