Chapter 13: The Composing of “To Anacreon in Heaven,” c. 1778
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
In a short dialogue set in 1778, two men debate the merits of the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” One speaker (Amos) worries that a particular phrase in the melody is “a little high” and might be unsingable. The other speaker dismisses this concern, insisting it is a drinking song for drunk people and that no one will ever be required to sing it in formal settings. Amos persists, pointing out that “God Save the King” is more singable. The second speaker then spins an increasingly elaborate hypothetical: the American colonies will someday secede, win a war, fight another war, and a witness to the Battle of Baltimore will write a poem set to this very tune. That poem will become a national anthem that people will struggle to sing for centuries, and the unsingable note will come to symbolize the country’s unfulfilled promises. The other speaker flatly rejects this scenario as impossible, and the conversation ends.
Key Events
- The debate begins: Amos identifies a high note in “To Anacreon in Heaven” and questions whether it is too difficult.
- Dismissal of concern: The other speaker argues that the song is only a drinking song and will never be sung in formal or mass settings.
- Comparison to “God Save the King”: Amos notes that the British anthem is more accessible, hinting at a future where anthems matter.
- The elaborate prediction: The second speaker imagines a chain of events leading from 1778 to the adoption of the tune as the U.S. national anthem and the national realization of its unsingability.
- Rejection of the prediction: The other speaker says “no” to that entire scenario, ending the exchange.
Character Development
This chapter does not develop characters in a traditional narrative sense. Instead, it presents two contrasting voices:
- Amos: Cautious, detail-oriented, concerned about practicality and future use of the song.
- The unnamed second speaker: Confident, short-sighted, dismissive of long-term consequences, yet ironically the one who correctly predicts the song’s future role.
Because the chapter is a standalone skit, neither character appears elsewhere in the book, and their dialogue serves only the chapter’s satirical point.
Themes, Symbols, and Motifs
- Irony of unintended consequences: The speaker who insists the song will never be used outside a tavern accurately describes its future as a national anthem, while rejecting that idea as absurd.
- Unsingability as metaphor: The high note foreshadows the difficulty of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Petri suggests this difficulty mirrors the gap between American ideals and reality.
- Drinking song vs. national anthem: The contrast between a casual, humorous tune and the solemn weight it later carries highlights how symbols can acquire significance far beyond their origins.
- Historical foreshadowing: The chapter plays on hindsight, using a fictional 1778 conversation to mock the unanticipated path of American history.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 13 is a microcosm of Alexandra Petri’s comedic method: taking a small, overlooked fact (the origin of the national anthem’s tune) and exaggerating its implications to critique American mythology. It reminds readers that the nation’s most revered symbols often have humble, even absurd beginnings. The chapter also prefigures later discussions of national identity and the tension between the country’s founding ideals and its messy reality. By framing the anthem’s unsingability as a deliberate choice that later became a national frustration, Petri invites us to reconsider how we venerate historical artifacts without examining their origins.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does the second speaker reject Amos’s concern about the high note? What assumptions does that rejection reveal?
The second speaker believes the song will remain a private drinking song and never be adopted for public ceremonies. This reveals an assumption that the current political and social order (British rule) is permanent and that revolutionary change is unthinkable.
2. How does the chapter use foreshadowing to create humor? Give one specific example.
The second speaker walks through a detailed sequence of events—the Revolution, the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key’s poem, and the anthem’s modern difficulty—while denying that such a sequence could happen. The humor comes from readers knowing that every step of that “impossible” scenario came true.
3. What does the high note come to symbolize, according to the second speaker’s prediction?
The high note symbolizes the hollowness at the heart of the nation’s highest promises. The speaker imagines Americans thinking that the unsingable note represents a fundamental heartbreak, a failure to reach the ideals the country claims to stand for.