The Star-Spangled Banner-Francis Scott
Key
The flag that inspired Francis Key to write the U.S. national
anthem, hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History in Wasthington, D.C. Key saw the flag flying
over Fort McHenry in Baltimore while he was held prisoner by the
British during the War of 1812.
A caption in World Book Encyclopedia. 1992. So-Sz. 18. Pg
854.
- Oh! 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, thro' the perilous
fight,
- O'er the ramparts we watched were so galanty streaming?
- And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
- Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
- Oh! 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'ver 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'ver 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 battle's confusion
- A home and a country should leave us no more?
- Their blood has washed out ther foul footstep's
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 home and war's desolution,
- Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land
- Praise the Pow'r 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 home of the brave.