This Is My Country

"This Is My Country" is an American patriotic song composed in 1940. The lyrics are by Don Raye and the music is by Al Jacobs.^[1] Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians were the first to record the song, in 1942. The song has played at the end of Walt Disney World and Disneyland fireworks shows.^[1]

The song begins slowly, opening with this introductory verse:

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.

A second, rarely performed, verse reads,

With hand upon my heart, I thank the Lord for this, my native land, for all I love is here within her gates

My soul is rooted deeply in the soil on which I stand, for these are mine, my own United States!

It then swings into a march tempo for the chorus.

The song is made notable by the fact that it honors both Americans by birth and choice. The first chorus reads:

This is my country

Land of my birth

This is my country

Grandest on Earth

While the second chorus (sung on a repeat, as the introduction is usually 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