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Historical SummaryKey was a lawyer. His fame as a poet rests entirely upon this one lyric, the glowing words of which are harmonic with the patriotic enthusiasm of the moment that gave it form. — For Key and the circumstances under which the poem was written, see Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger B. Tancy, 109–119; Historical Magazine, V, 282; G. H. Preble, Three Historic Flags, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXVIII, 32–41, which gives the different versions of the song.
"The Star-Spangled Banner" (1814)
BY FRANCIS SCOTT KEY
O! SAY can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watch’d 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 that 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.
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 wash’d 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.
O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their lov’d 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 preserv’d 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.
September 21, 1814; reprinted by National Intelligencer (Washington), September 27, 1814.
Chicago: Francis Scott Key, Baltimore American,, ed. National Intelligencer in American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. Albert Bushnell Hart (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902), 422. Original Sources, accessed May 1, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I27D7S8SCIVP5Y2.
MLA: Key, Francis Scott. Baltimore American,, edited by National Intelligencer, in American History Told by Contemporaries, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Vol. 3, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1902, page 422. Original Sources. 1 May. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I27D7S8SCIVP5Y2.
Harvard: Key, FS, Baltimore American,, ed. . cited in 1902, American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. , The Macmillan Company, New York, pp.422. Original Sources, retrieved 1 May 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=I27D7S8SCIVP5Y2.
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