THE STAR-SPANGELED BANNER
Francis Scott Key
at Baltimore, Maryland Sept. 14, 1814
Designated March 3, 1931 as the National Anthem
1. 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 thru the perilous flight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallently streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in there
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say does that star-spangeled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
2. 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 towring 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-spangeled banner! Oh long it may wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
3. 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-spangeled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
4. Oh! Thus be it ever, where freedom shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven 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-spangeled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
