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 now conceals now 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 valiantly 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 forever shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave


Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843)