National Anthem –
“Star Spangled Banner”
by Francis Scott Key
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, 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 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, now conceals, now 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 wiped out their 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 homes 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, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the
brave!