The Star-Spangled Banner

Our national anthem is a product of the War of 1812, not the revolution.  It is also the product of an attorney who was also a poet.  I used to tell my students that the gift poets give to us is the ability to say things in a way we want to, but may not be able to.  We are fortunate to have an abundance of inspiring and patriot songs, many much easier to sing than the Star-Spangled Banner.  My favorite is always going to be America.  But as a national anthem, Key’s standard is hard to beat. 

Francis Scott Key had been sent aboard a British warship, Tonnant, to negotiate the release of an American civilian, Dr. William Beanes, held on the boat.  Once on board, he was detained while the British bombarded Ft. McHenry in Baltimore harbor.  On the morning of September 14, 1814, Key peered through the mists of the dawn’s early light to see the American flag still flying over the battlements.  He quickly started jotting down the words to a poem which would become our national anthem.   He published it under the title “Defense of Ft. McHenry.” 

A century later, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order making the song became our national anthem.  We hardly ever hear the later verses, all of which end with “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”  The last verse is worth more repetition, for so often we have had to see that “…freemen shall stand between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!...” 

Love our land and keep the faith—oh, and read the complete verses of our national anthem below. 

The Star-Spangled Banner

O 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 through 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 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, 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!

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 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.

O thus be it ever when freemen 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 power 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.