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 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 on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O 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 wiped out their foul footstep's 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.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-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!
Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843)
The Star-Spangled Banner is all about us as a nation, where we came from and how we have fought to be free. It honors not only those patriots who have fallen in the past but those patriots who are dying now to pay the price of the freedom we enjoy.
"America the Beautiful" is a song promoted by anti-gun wussies who want to remove all reference to fighting from the public forum.
That's my opinion anyway, and I'm entitled to it.
No other song makes my skin tingle and my heart and soul rise up like the Star-Spangled Banner - the National Anthem with a History.
No other song makes my skin tingle and my heart and soul rise up like the Star-Spangled Banner - the National Anthem with a History.
I agree with you, ZULU. I get goose-bumps and tear up whenever I hear it. You are right. It tells the story of America. However, I also like "America the Beautiful". I tear up when I hear that, too.