U.S. National Anthem
"The Star Spangled Banner", 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. The words were written in 1814
by Francis Scott Key, who had been inspired by the sight of the American flag
still flying over Fort McHenry after a night of heavy British bombardment. The
text was immediately set to a popular melody of the time, To Anacreon in
Heaven. The National Anthem consists of four verses. On almost every
occasion only the first verse is sung.
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.