The Star-Spangled Banner
I
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?
II
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!
III
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!
IV
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!
Return to the Entisoft Home Page