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A Tribute To America
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 rocket's red
glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through 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 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. 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 freemen 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 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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States.
Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer and amateur verse writer, wrote the song
during the War of 1812. The melody comes from "To Anacreon in Heaven," a
drinking song created by composer John Stafford Smith of Britain in the late
1700's. The U.S. Congress officially approved the song as the national anthem in
1931.
How the song came to be written. In August 1814, British forces near
Washington, D.C., arrested an American civilian, William Beanes of Upper
Marlborough, Maryland. They held Beanes prisoner aboard a warship in Chesapeake
Bay near the mouth of the Potomac River. General John Mason, the United States
official in charge of prisoner exchanges, asked two Americans to communicate
with the British in an effort to have Beanes released. These Americans were Key,
a friend of Beanes's, and John S. Skinner, a government agent.
Key and Skinner went to Baltimore. There, they boarded a United States flag
of truce ship, a ship used to conduct negotiations with the British. The
flag of truce ship took Key and Skinner to the British warship just as the
vessel was preparing to bombard Fort McHenry, which stood near Baltimore's
harbor. The British agreed to release Beanes. But they did not want the
Americans to reveal plans of the attack. They therefore held the Americans on
the flag of truce ship at the rear of the British fleet until after the battle
ended. The bombardment started on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1814, and continued all day and
almost all night. Key and his friends knew that Fort McHenry had little defense.
The prisoners paced the deck all night. When dawn came, they saw the American
flag still flying over the walls of the fort. Key was deeply moved. He pulled a
letter from his pocket and started writing verses. Later that day, the British
released the Americans, and Key returned to Baltimore. There, he finished
revising the song.
How the song became famous. A few days after the bombardment, Key's poem,
titled "Defense of Fort M'Henry," was printed on handbills (printed
notices) and distributed in Baltimore. A note on the handbills said the poem
should be sung to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven." Americans knew the
melody, which had been used for a popular political song named "Adams and
Liberty" and many other patriotic songs. Key himself had used the melody in an
earlier song. By November 1814, the song had been published in Baltimore under
the name "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was soon published in several other
American cities, and it quickly gained popularity. The U.S. Army began to sing
it at the daily raising and lowering of the flag in 1895. Today, by government
permission, the United States flag flies continuously over Key's grave at
Frederick, Maryland, and over Fort McHenry.

The
Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the U.S.
national anthem, hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
American History in Washington, D.C. Key saw the flag flying over Fort McHenry
in Baltimore while he was held prisoner by the British during the War of 1812.
The flag, which is 50 feet (15 meters) long, covers an entire wall.
Valerie
Woodring Goertzen, "Star-Spangled Banner," World Book Online Americas Edition,
http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/529760,
May 4, 2002.
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