Full, Correct Lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. Its text was written as a poem titled Defence of Fort M’Henry by Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song, To Anacreon in Heaven, and gained wide use as a patriotic song before being officially adopted as the U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931. Below are the complete, standard lyrics commonly used in the first, most familiar stanza and the three additional stanzas that complete the poem.
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 banner 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.
Stanza Two
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—O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Stanza Three
Where is the 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!
Stanza Four
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 heaven-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.