Interred in my hometown. R.I.P.
Posted on 07/04/2006 7:24:57 AM PDT by Gritty
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!
My cousin Francis sure could write a catchy little ditty!
The first stanza is the only one sung (most of the time) and it is a question. The second stanza provides the answer.
Interred in my hometown. R.I.P.
Go Francis . . . go Francis . . . :-)
Thanks for the post!
I'm writing this just to use the tag line I just lifted.
And my 92+ yr old mother in law-- Franca M.E. Key -- can sing it REAL well!
An essay by Isaac Asimov on the subject of the four verses.
Rest in peace, Isaac.
http://www.freedom.org/front/essay/12.html
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!
Note the caps, ye FReeper atheists and evolutionists masquerading as patriots. In these politically correct times, no wonder we never hear these other verses of the national anthem.
Thanks for posting the full text of the song...
Truer words were never spoken!
The last verse would be the most appropriate if only one verse is sung. However, it would run into the same objection as the 1954 amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance.
My father's sister was married to (and long now the widow of) Yale E. Key. She was very proud of his being a descendant of Francis Scott Key.
I know Francis Scott Key wasn't a Founder, but he was almost as old as one. His mention of God in the last verse pretty much puts aside the Left's view that Americans were athiests until Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were born.
The Tripolitan war lives on not only in the Marine hymn, but also in other songs. In Georgetown, Maryland, a banquet honoring Stephen Decatur and the other heroes celebrated the victory with a song written by lawyer Francis Scott Key. Key took the popular drinking song, "Anacreon in Heaven," which had been used for many patriotic songs of the day, and turned it into an anthem:The above came from US History Monthly, Winter 2002, which seems to currently be offline. I've not seen the text of the second earlier verse so I can't report it.When the warrior returns from the battle afar,
To the home and the country he has nobly defended,
Oh! Warm be the welcome to gladden his ear,
And loud be the joys that his perils are ended!
In the full tide of song, let his fame roll along.
To the feast-flowing board let us gratefully throng.
Where mixt with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave.The next verse celebrates the "band of brothers" that braved the desert and ocean to secure the rights and "fair fame" of America. The third verse continues the theme, more explicitly focused on the Tripolitan war:
In conflict resistless each toil they endured,
Till their foes shrunk dismay'd from the war's desolation:
And pale beam'd the crescent, its splendor obscur'd
By the light of the star-spangled flag of our nation.
Where each flaming star gleam'd a meteor of war,
And the turban'd heads bowed to the terrible glare.
Then mixt with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath, for the brow of the brave.Nine years later, Key would stand aboard a British warship as it bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He would rewrite this song about Tripoli, with its imagery of bombs and warfare, and the arresting image of the "star-spangled" flag, which here obscures the Muslim crescent. Key's song of Tripoli lives on in the American national anthem.
Nice tag line.
It's also interesting we are still at war with the same people who fly the same flag - 200+ years later!
Long my favorite verse of the song.
I'm not sure what it has to do with "FReeper atheists and evolutionists," who are surely not masquerading as patriots, or they wouldn't be here.
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