Second Verse Curse: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

''Thro' the mists of the deep"''|'''First phrase of the Star Spangled Banner's ''second'' stanza.'''}}

''That side was made for you and me."''|'''Woody Guthrie,''' one of the [[Hobo|more controversial]] verses of '''"This Land Is Your Land"'''}}

* "The Star-Spangled Banner" also has four stanzas. You'd think the second one would be more popular, as it answers the question asked in the first. The third one, on the other hand, is often left out even by those who know it for being blatantly anti-British. "Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution" indeed.

** Near the end of Ken Burns ''The Civil War'', it quotes a woman who had attended the April 14, 1865 flag raising at Fort Sumpter where Col. Robert Anderson [[Book Ends|(the one who took the flag down when the fort was abandoned at the end of the civil war) raised the Union flag that was taken down when the fort was lost in 1861 at the beginning of the war]]. In proof that this trope is at the very least [[Older Than Radio]], she says:

** In a short story by Isaac Asimov, the protagonist caught a German spy by tricking him into revealing that he knew the whole thing, as [[Conviction by Contradiction|presumably]] only a spy extensively coached on the culture he's infiltrating would have bothered to learn anything aside from the first verse.

*** [[Hypocritical Humor|Asimov himself knew all four verses by heart and used to give speeches about how you need to know all four to truly appreciate the beauty of the anthem.]]

* The second through fifth verses of "Dixie's Land."

* "When the Saints Go Marching In" ''can'' have up to a dozen verses. Odds are, the only one known to or used by most people is this one:

Where the saints go marching in. }}

* "This Land Is Your Land," by Woody Guthrie, as noted above.

* "Yankee Doodle" has some 16 verses. Most people only know the first verse (the one with the "macaroni") along with the refrain, though the verses starting with "Father and I went down to camp" and "And there was Captain Washington" seem to be popular.

* "Winter Wonderland" has a lesser-known intro before the famous "Sleigh bells ring, are you list'nin'?":

We’re walkin’ and hopin’ together }}

** And the verse about Parson Brown and getting married, by 1953, was already considered archaic, so this verse was written in its place. Some renditions keep Parson Brown; others do both him ''and'' this verse, while still others get as far as "until the other kiddies knock him down" and then return to "sleigh bells ring, are you list'nin'?" instead.

We'll have lots of fun with Mr. [[Rhyming with Itself|Snowman]]<br />

Until the other kiddies knock him down<br />

* Similarly, there are five verses to "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", but most hymnals only use four. The third verse (which begins "Yet with the woes of sin and strife / The world has suffered long...") is typically the omitted verse, while the Episcopalian ''Hymnal 1982'' omits verse four ("And ye, beneath life's crushing load / Whose forms are bending low…") instead.

* Inverted by ''White Christmas'' whose first stanza was removed by composer Irving Berlin for its first wide release in [[World War Two|1942]]:

And I'm longing to be up north. }}

* The rarely-seen final verse to "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Unsurprisingly, it was written by Charles Wesley, who (as seen below) is no stranger to this trope:

Reinstate us in thy love. }}

* ''Joy to the World'' has four verses, but most renditions will skip the third.

* Just about all of them, but a few examples:

* The final verse to "Brightest and Best", which totally changes the meaning of the song to an anti-consumerist message, is [[Misaimed Fandom|often omitted]].

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor }}

* Charles Wesley's "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written with ''seventeen'' verses (albeit rather short verses in [[Common Meter]]). Most versions snip out the first six (the line that provides the title is actually the seventh verse), using 7-12 and 17. Others also omit 12 because of the line "his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ".

== Other ==

* The ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' version of the ''Transformers'' opening theme is actually the only version to contain extra lyrics

Justice, bolts, and gears! }}

** Also, the ending theme from ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' has a full set of verses.

** Back to ''Animated'', the show's second Japanese opening actually uses the second verse of their version of the show's opening theme, as well as a completely new animation for [[Big Bad|Megatron.]]

* These often-forgotten lyrics to the ''[[DuckTales]]'' opening theme:

(chorus) }}

* "Arabian Nights" from ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' originally had [http://animationarchive.net/Feature%20Films/Aladdin/Removed%20Songlyrics/Arabian%20Nights/ three verses] (four if you count the B-section), in addition to four reprises at various points in the story, but was cut down to a single stanza for the film. Some of the cut verses and reprises later appeared in the sequels, and more recently, all were restored in the [[Screen to Stage Adaptation|stage musical]].