The Star Spangled Banner

[Navy6064]

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

Words by Francis Scott Key Music b John Stafford Smith


On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the
British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release
of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after
the burning of Washington, DC. The release was
secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight
during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts
defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so
delighted to see the American flag still flying over
the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion.

The melody was first published in England circa 1780
as To Anacreon in Heaven. The melody was probably
written by British composer John Stafford Smith

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it be
played at military and naval occasions. In 1931, the
Star-Spangled Banner became our national anthem.






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!