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 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

External links

• This Is My Country: Patriotic Melodies