| "A Soldier's Rosary" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music cover | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1918 |
| Songwriter(s) | Composer: Joseph A. Burke Lyricist: J. E. Dempsey |
"A Soldier's Rosary" is a 1918 song composed by Joseph A. Burke with lyrics by J. E. Dempsey. The 1918 publication, by the A. J. Stasny Music Co., featured a cover illustration by E. E. Walton.
The song tells of a mother exhorting her soldier son to remember to say his nightly prayers, while the singer comforts the mother with the thought that the soldier's actions are all the prayer he needs, saying "He serves his maker when he serves his country's needs." The song compares the bullets of war to the beads on the rosary, and the soldier's ultimate death is concluded as "a soldier's rosary".
Analysis
In Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of American Popular Music from Colonial Times, Timothy Sheurer argues that "A Soldier's Rosary" perpetuates the American myth of divine destiny, that the American ideal serves a higher purpose. By equating the soldier's actions with prayer, his ultimate death is given higher purpose.
References
- "A soldier's rosary". pritzkermilitary.org.
- Parker, Bernard S. (2007). World War I Sheet Music. Vol. 2. McFarland. p. 598. ISBN 978-0-7864-2799-4.
- Sheurer, Timothy E. (1991). Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of American Popular Music from Colonial Times. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 102–104. ISBN 978-1-60473-807-0.
Further reading
- Parker, Bernard S. World War I Sheet Music:9,670 Patriotic Songs Published in the United States, 1914–1920,with More Than 600 Covers Illustrated. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. ISBN 0-7864-2798-1 OCLC 71790113
- Scheurer, Timothy E. Born in the U.S.A.: The Myth of America in Popular Music from Colonial Times to the Present. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. ISBN 0-585-27023-6 OCLC 45733274
- Vogel, Frederick G. World War I Songs: A History and Dictionary of Popular American Patriotic Tunes, with Over 300 Complete Lyrics. Jefferson, N.C.: McFsrland & Co., 1995. ISBN 0-89950-952-5 OCLC 32241433
- Whalan, Mark. American Culture in the 1910s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. ISBN 0-7486-3425-8 OCLC 638860196