Bald Eagle
Can you sing all four verses of our national anthem by memory? Neither can I. Although it had been written over a century before, the Star Spangled Banner did not officially became the American national anthem until March 3, 1931 by congressional resolution and that is why we celebrate it on this day. Before then the military had adopted the song and required it at the raising and lowering of the U.S. flag.
It’s author, attorney Francis Scott Key had watched the 25 hour bombing of Fort McHenry from a British ship anchored four miles away. He was on the ship to negotiate the release of an American who had been taken prisoner by the British. As the dawn’s early light broke, on the morning of September 14, 1814, Key began penning lines that became our national anthem.
Listen to a version of the anthem performed on instruments original to 19th century from the National Museum of American History’s collection.
While we are more familiar with the first verse, commonly sung before sporting events, the song has four verses:
The Star-Spangled Banner
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 rocket’s 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, 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!
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 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.
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.
The Smithsonian Institute has more information for you to enjoy as you celebrate in their article about the song and about the symbol it is named for, the American flag.
Ideas for celebrating:
- Of course, the most obvious option, sing the anthem and teach it to your children.
- Wear a flag or red white and blue.
- Eat something red white and blue.
- Check out my Star Spangled Banner Pinterest page for more ideas!
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