Lyrics Of Star Spangled Banner

By Author: Rob Thomas
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The Star-Spangled Banner comes from the poem entitled "Defense of fort McHenry", which was composed in 1814 by the poet Francis Scott Key. Key was moved by the seeing the American Flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning following it was attacked and wrote the first verse of the poem on the back of a letter. He later completed the poem when he returned to Baltimore, where it gained popularity and was printed by numerous papers along the East Coast.

"Defense of fort McHenry" was renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and set to the tune of a popular British drinking song composed by John Stafford Smith. It was made for official Navy use in 1889 and for the President in 1889 and ultimately appointed the national anthem by congress on March 3, 1931.

The opening verse is the only one that is usually sung. The second through fourth are now only used at formal events.

The complete lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner are as follows.

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 thru ...
... the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through 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 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!

Oh! 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!
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