"Song of Liberty" is a British

patriotic Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

song which became popular during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The song was set to the music of

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

's '' Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4''. It followed the success of

Land of Hope and Glory "Land of Hope and Glory" is a British patriotic song, with music by Edward Elgar written in 1901 and lyrics by A. C. Benson later added in 1902. Composition The music to which the words of the refrain 'Land of Hope and Glory, &c' below ar ...

, another patriotic song with lyrics by A. C. Benson set to Elgar's ''

Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 The ''Pomp and Circumstance Marches'' (full title ''Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches''), Opus number, Op. 39, are a series of five (or six) march (music), marches for orchestra composed by Sir Edward Elgar. The first four were publ ...

''. In 1940, six years after the death of the composer,

A. P. Herbert Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (A. P. Herbert, 24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and in 1935–1950 an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University. Born in Ashtead, Su ...

(with permission) wrote lyrics to the tune.
SONG OF LIBERTY (POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE MARCH No.4). Song in E-flat. Words by A. P. Herbert. Boosey & Co. (1940) pp7 It is not known who arranged the music for the song: they would have been known to the publisher at the time, but their name is not acknowledged on the publication.

Lyrics

Herbert wrote two verses for the song, each followed by a

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

:
''"All men must be free
March for liberty with me.
Brutes and braggarts may ...
have their little sway
We shall never bend the knee ..."'' from which the song gets its title.

In Popular Culture

The song appeared in the

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's 1972 movie,

A Clockwork Orange ''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to: * ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess ** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel *** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...

. In the film, Alex, the main character, had just accepted to participate in a British government program that promised to cease his appel for violence. The program's goal is achieved by the use of torture, making Alex unable of doing the violence acts he was used, because those acts reminded him of the pain he saw in the program. The song, therefore, appears in the movie in a ironic way, while the main character is on his way to a Pavlov training.

References

1940 songs British patriotic songs Songs by Edward Elgar Works by A. P. Herbert Songs about freedom {{1940s-song-stub