—Francis Scott Key, 1814
O say, can you see, by
the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's
last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous
fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And
the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro'
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 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 on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, 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 wash'd 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
free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest
with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r
that hath made and preserv'd 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!
On
