The Star Spangled Banner
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, thro' 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 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!
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!
Francis
Scott Key
