O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
       what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
       whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
       o're the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
    And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
       gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
    O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
       o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

    On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
       where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes.
    What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
       as it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
    Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
       in full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
    'Tis the star-spangled banner!  Oh long may it wave
       o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

    And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
       that the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
          a home and a country should leave us no more!
    Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
    No refuge could save the hireling and slave
       from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
       o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

    O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
       between their loved home and the war's desolation!
    Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
       praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
    Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
       and this be our motto:  "In God is our trust."
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
       o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

     

 

 

       Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," was born 01 August 1779 in Carrol County, Maryland, and died 11 January 1843 in Baltimore, Maryland. He wrote the words after observing the British attack on Fort McHenry, 13-14 September 1814, during the War of 1812.

 

       The words were set to a popular drinking song of the period called "To Anacreon." Amazingly, it wasn't until 1931 that the US Congress passed legislation making the "Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States of America.

 

       Key is known to have made at least 5 copies of the song. Four of those were between 1840 and 1842. The oldest copy of these four can be seen at the Library of Congress American Treasures Exhibit website.

 

 

 
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