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To: Pyro7480
We had to memorize the whole song (all verses) at the Academy. I think people would have a greater appreciation if they even knew there were more verses, let alone actually read them. My favorite is the fourth verse...

The Star Spangled Banner
By Francis Scott Key, 1814

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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 thro' 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 wash'd 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 free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd 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!

78 posted on 04/12/2006 11:50:40 AM PDT by pgyanke (Christ has a tolerance for sinners; liberals have a tolerance for sin.)
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To: pgyanke

I like the Cicero quote in your profile. :-)


81 posted on 04/12/2006 11:52:05 AM PDT by Pyro7480 (Sancte Joseph, terror daemonum, ora pro nobis!)
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To: pgyanke
Glad somebody else still knows all four verses!

I sometimes mess with people's heads by singing the wrong verse, makes 'em look at you funny.

I like the fourth one too, but the third one is the one that really makes the liberals' hair stand on end. And that is good for them.

91 posted on 04/12/2006 11:58:59 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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