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 rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, | 5 |
| Gave proof through 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, | 10 |
| 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; | |
| Its full glory reflected now shines on the stream; | |
| ’T is the star-spangled banner, oh! long may it wave | 15 |
| O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. | |
| |
| And where is the band who so vauntingly swore, | |
| Mid the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion, | |
| A home and a country they ’d leave us no more? | |
| Their blood hath washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution; | 20 |
| 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 | 25 |
| Between their loved home and the war’s desolation; | |
| Blessed 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,” | 30 |
| And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave | |
| O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. | |
| |
