The “Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort
The “Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.
“Hail, Columbia,” served as the national anthem from General Washington’s time and through the 18th and 19th centuries.
“The Star-Spangled Banner”, officially recognized for use by the Navy in 1889 and the President in 1916, became our national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.
Though many patriotic songs such as “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” continue to compete for popularity, the most popular anthem of the United States remains… “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth (“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand…”) being added on more formal occasions.
Today, while most of us agree that singing “The Star Spangled Banner” is challenging, none will deny that its closing stanza “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave” speaks of the patriotism deeply felt in all of our hearts.
‘The Star-Spangled Banner’
Written by Francis Scott Key
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! Oh 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 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!
• SgtMaj Tony Elliott USMC (Ret) is a member of the Hawai‘i Office of Veterans Services on Kaua‘i.
