The Star Spangled Banner

The Flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.

The Star Spangled Banner
By Francis Scott Key

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 fully 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 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.

Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory 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.

History of The Star Spangled Banner:

Francis Scott Key, a Washington attorney wrote the poem The Defence of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Later the poem was set to music and renamed The Star Spangled Banner.

Key sailed to the British fleet to obtain the release of captured Americans. He was detained by the British and forced to witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry near Baltimore on the night of September 13th, 1814. The sight of the American flag still flying at dawn inspired Key’s poem later set to music.

The song became the official national anthem by executive order of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. It was confirmed by an act of Congress in 1931.

The reason The Star Spangled Banner is played before ball games is because in 1918, during World War I, the United States considered canceling the World Series. But when they heard soldiers were looking forward to hearing about the series, officials compromised and went ahead with the games. But they played the song during the seventh inning stretch. Everyone stood and sang along. Since then it’s been a tradition to start ball games and major sporting events with the National Anthem.

The flag that inspired the song was sewn by Mary Pickersgill and is hanging at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.