The National Anthem
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’er 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 thro’ the mist 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
on 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.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the
war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry 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 doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the
brave.
-- Francis Scott Key (Aug 1 1779 - Jan 11 1843)
