| lyrics or other text: | Sung to the English tune "To Anacreon in Heaven" by John Stafford Smith, written in the 1760s
Lyrics by Francis Scott Key, written in 1814. Normally only the first verse is performed.
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 through 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.
Chorus
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
Chorus
'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 and the gloom of the grave
Chorus
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!
Bles't 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."
Chorus
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The sheet music shown here is from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Star-Spangled_Banner.JPG
As you can see, the pick-up note used to be a quarter note C and the piece was in 6/4 rather than 3/4. |
