The Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner is our national anthem. An anthem is a special song sung to show honor and loyalty. The United States was at war with England in 1812. Just before an attack by the British, the American soldiers raised the United Stated flag over their fort. Not far away, Francis Scott Key, an American poet and lawyer, watched the battle. Following a British attack during the night, Key looked through the morning sky for the United States flag. When he saw it still waving over the fort, he knew the Americans had won, and he began writing the words to "The Star Spangled Banner" on the back of a letter. He wrote the entire song in one day. The poem was set to music composed by John Stafford Smith. It has officially been the national anthem since 1931.

It actually has four verses, and you can read (or sing) all of them below. Americans should stand and face the flag, and many people put their hand over their heart while singing the National Anthem.

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, 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 watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, 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 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 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 free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry 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!

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