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, 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 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, 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!
