The Star Spangled Banner Written by Francis Scott Key - September 20, 1814 |
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, now conceals, now 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, for our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! |
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was originally titled "The Defence of Fort McHenry." Click here to print. Do you know all of the lyrics? Try our free online gap text (cloze reading) quiz to test your skills! Click here. |
UNIT I: | Early America | UNIT IX: | Discontent and Reform | ||
UNIT II: | Colonial Period | UNIT X: | War, Prosperity, and Depression | ||
UNIT III: | American Revolution | UNIT XI: | New Deal and World War II | ||
UNIT IV: | New National Government | UNIT XII: | Postwar America | ||
UNIT V: | Westward Expansion | UNIT XIII: | Decades of Change | ||
UNIT VI: | Sectional Conflict | UNIT XIV: | New Conservatism | ||
UNIT VII: | Civil War and Reconstruction | UNIT XV: | Into the Twenty-first Century | ||
UNIT VIII: | Growth and Transformation | UNIT XVI: | Polarization and Deglobalization |