Our National Anthem

The Star-Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814. On that day, Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships. As the Royal Navy was raining down cannonballs upon the American fort in the harbor of Baltimore, Key noticed the newly created American flag flying high and proud amidst the chaos. The next day, after the attack had ceased, the flag was untouched and flying brilliantly in the sunlit sky. It inspired him to write a poem that would later become very famous. That poem was published a few days later in an American magazine under the title of Defence of Fort M'Henry. Years later, that poem would be set to music, given a new title, and eventually become the unofficial anthem of the United States. On March 3, 1931, the U.S. Congress passed a law finally making The Star-Spangled Banner our official national anthem.

The Star-Spangled Banner

( A l l   V e r s e s )

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!