The Star-Spangled Banner

1. O! 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?

2. 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 in 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.

3. 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 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.

4. O! thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
Between their loved 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 We Trust|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!^[1]