France
La Marseillaise
1792
1795
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
🔥 Revolution ⚔ Battle / War 🕊 Freedom |
Key Facts
- 1. Rouget de Lisle was a royalist who nearly lost his head to the very revolution his song celebrated
- 2. Napoleon banned it during his empire, the Bourbons banned it again after his fall, and it was only permanently restored in 1879
- 3. The Beatles sampled the opening notes for the intro of 'All You Need Is Love,' broadcast to 400 million people worldwide in 1967
Lyrics
Allons enfants de la Patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé !
Contre nous de la tyrannie,
L'étendard sanglant est levé,
L'étendard sanglant est levé !
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes
Mugir ces féroces soldats ?
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !
Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals
Analysis
EditorialComposed in a single night on April 25, 1792, by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a young army engineer in Strasbourg who was not a professional composer. He wrote it as a war march for the French Army of the Rhine. Volunteers from Marseille sang it so passionately while marching to Paris that Parisians named it after them.