The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from Defence of Fort McHenry,[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a mens social club in London. The Anacreontic Song (or To Anacreon in Heaven), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Keys poem and renamed The Star-Spangled Banner, it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. The Star-Spangled Banner was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. O 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, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the mornings first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in 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 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, Oer 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 wars desolation. Blest with victry and peace, may the Heavn 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 Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave! In indignation over the start of the American Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. added a fifth stanza to the song in 1861 which appeared in songbooks of the era. When our land is illumined with libertys smile, If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory, Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile The flag of the stars, and the page of her story! By the millions unchained, Who their 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.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 05:58:08 +0000