Oh, say can you see, by the dawns early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
Oer 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
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foes haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, oer the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the mornings first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
Oer 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 battles confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped 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
Oer 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 wars 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, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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