The Star Spangled Banner
"The Star Spangled Banner", composed by Francis Scott
Key in 1814, was ordered played at military and naval occasions by President
Woodrow Wilson in 1916, but was not designated the national anthem by an
Act of Congress until 1931.
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
thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were
so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs
bursting in air,
Gave proof thru the night that our
flag was still there.
Oh, 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! Oh
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 washed out of of
their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling
and slave'
From the terror of flight and 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 home and the
war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may
the heav'n 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 in triumph
shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the
home of the brave.
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