Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall standīetween their loved home and the war's desolation!īlest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land No refuge could save the hireling and slaveįrom the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,Ī home and a country should leave us no more! O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!Īnd where is that band who so vauntingly swore 'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,Īs it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?Īnd the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light Air Force Band - Instrumental - Public Domain) The Star Spangled Banner (Sousa's Band) Listen - MP3 (Sousa - Public Domain) However, only in 1931, following a twenty-year effort during which more than forty bills and joint resolutions were introduced in Congress, was a law finally signed proclaiming 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be the national anthem of the United States. In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote new words for a well-known drinking song, 'To Anacreon in Heaven,' to celebrate America's recent victory over the British.

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