Alabama, Alabama, We Will Aye Be True to Thee

"Alabama" is the state song so adopted by the state legislature in 1931. However, the poem, "Alabama" was originally written by Miss Julia Tutwiler in the 1870s. She had studied in Germany and while there, became enamoured of the "Austrian Hymn" the German National Anthem. When she returned to Alabama, she was impressed to write the poem "Alabama" to be sung to that tune.

After World War I and with the rise of Nazism in Germany, all things German fell out of vogue, so the Alabama Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a contest to write a new tune to the poem. The winning entry was submitted by Mrs. Edna Gockel Gussen of Birmingham. In 1931, by Act No. 31-126, "Julia Tutwiler's "Alabama," set to Mrs Gussen's tune, became the official state song.

The song describes the width and breadth of the Great State of Alabama and each verse, save the last, ends with a pledge, "we will aye (ever) be true to the." The last stanza personalizes the pledge as it ends, "I will aye be true to thee.

Today, we will sing Miss Tutwiler's hymn-poem as she would have sung it - to the tune of the more singable and familiar "Austrian Hymn."

The full text follows:

Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee,
From thy Southern shore where groweth, By the sea thine orange tree.
To thy Northern vale where floweth Deep and blue thy Tennessee.
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

Broad the Stream whose name thou bearest; Grand thy Bigbee rolls along;
Fair thy Coosa-Tallapoosa, Bold thy Warrior, dark and strong.
Goodlier than the land that Moses Climbed lone Nebo's Mount to see
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

From thy prairies broad and fertile, Where thy snow-white cotton shines.
To the hills where coal and iron, Hide in thy exhaustless mines.
Strong-armed miners--sturdy farmers: Loyal hearts what'er we be.
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

From the quarries where the marble, White as that of Paros gleams
Waiting till thy sculptor's chisel, Wake to like thy poet's dream;
For not only wealth of nature, Wealth of mind hast thou to fee.
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

Where the perfumed south-wind whispers, Thy magnolia groves among,
Softer than a mother's kisses, Sweeter than a mother's song;
Where the golden jasmine trailing, Woos the treasure-laden bee,
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

Brave and pure thy men and women, Better this than corn and wine,
Make us worthy, God in Heaven, Of this goodly land of Thine;
Hearts as open as our doorways, Liberal hands and spirits free,
Alabama, Alabama, We will aye be true to thee!

Little, little, can I give thee, Alabama, mother mine;
But that little--hand, brain, spirit, All I have and am are thine.
Take, O take the gift and giver. Take and serve thyself with me,
Alabama, Alabama, I will aye be true to thee.