The Star-Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer seeking the release of a friend who had been captured by the British. Key was on board a British warship off the coast of Baltimore, Maryland, and witnessed the British invasion of Baltimore and the all night shelling of Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. When the sun rose and Key saw that the American flag was still flying over the fort, he realized that the British attack had failed. Believing the event worthy of a song, he began to compose a poem. He titled it "Defence of Fort McHenry" and put it to the tune of a popular 18th century British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven." Shortly after, published versions re-titled the song "The Star-Spangled Banner." On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the bill making the song the national anthem.
"Defence of Fort McHenry" or "The Star-Spangled Banner"
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 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,
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 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!
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!
—Francis Scott Key, 1814