| 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 rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, | |
| As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses? | |
| Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, | |
| In full glory reflected now shines on the stream; | |
| 'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |
| No refuge could save the hireling and slave, | |
| From the terror of flight and 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 | 25 |
| Between their loved homes 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, for our cause it is just. | |
| And this be our motto—"In God is our trust;" | 30 |
| And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave | |
| O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. | |
