The Star-Spangled Banner First Verse Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's 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? Second Verse 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 in 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. Third Verse 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 wash'd 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. Fourth Verse Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand Between their loved homes 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 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! _____________________________________________________ In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote new words for a well-known drinking song, "To Anacreon," to celebrate America's recent victory over the British. It was only in 1931, following a twenty-year effort during which over forty bills and joint resolutions were introduced in Congress, that a law was finally signed which proclaimed The Star-Spangled Banner to be the national anthem of the United States. The present copy, one of only five known to have been made by Key, is the earliest of four dating from the period 1840-1842 near the end of his life.