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The Star Spangled Banner
(O! Say Can You
See)
by Francis Scott Key (1780-1843)
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.
O! 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, when 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!
The story behind the poem and song:
On Sept. 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer living in Georgetown, was onboard a ship near Baltimore trying to secure a doctor friend's release from British imprisonment during the War of 1812. After a 25-hour bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry, Key peered through clearing smoke to see an enormous flag flying proudly above the fort. Key was inspired to write a poem, which was later set to music.
The first official step toward making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem was taken in 1889 when the Secretary of the Navy ordered it played at morning flag-raising ceremonies. By 1917 both the Army and the Navy considered the tune to be the national anthem for ceremonial purposes.
In 1931, due largely to the efforts of Mrs. Reuben Ross Holloway, president of the Maryland State Society, United States Daughters of 1812, and Congressman J. Charles Linthicum of Baltimore, Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official national anthem of the United States.
Insights...
Grasping the inner nature of things intuitively.
