Lyrics[]
- O 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 in 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 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.
- O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
- Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
- Blest with vict'ry 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!
Additional Civil War period lyrics[]
In indignation over the start of the American Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile,
- If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,
- Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
- The flag of her stars and the page of her glory!
- By the millions unchained who our birthright have gained,
- We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
- And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
- While the land of the free is the home of the brave.
Alternative lyrics[]
In a version hand-written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line reads:
- "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight".