The Star Spangled Banner
In Honor Of Flag Day, June 14

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,                 

thro' the perilous fight,   

O'er the ramparts we watch'd,                           

were so gallantly streaming?           

And the rockets' red glare,                                             

the bombs bursting in air,          

Gave proof thro' 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                                                

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 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 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.

O thus be it ever when free-men 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 Pow'r 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!
                              

Francis Scott Keys                                                 Baltimore, 1814