<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> "My Country,' Tis of Thee" Piano and violin arrangement of "My Country,' Tis of Thee" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> Samuel Francis Smith wrote the lyrics to "My Country' Tis of Thee" in 1831, while he was a student at the Andover Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts . His friend Lowell Mason had asked him to translate the lyrics in some German school songbooks or to write new lyrics . A melody in Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3 (also called' The Great National' and contains the melody of' God Save the Queen' as a tribute to Clementi's adopted country) caught his attention . Rather than translating the lyrics from German, Smith wrote his own American patriotic hymn to the melody, completing the lyrics in thirty minutes . </P> <P> Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written and the song was first performed in public on July 4, 1831, at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston . First publication of "America" was in 1832 . </P>

When did my country tis of thee written