Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) was an American poet and lawyer who wrote the poem that became the lyrics for the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He also served as U.S. district attorney from 1833 to 1841. Key was born in what is now Carroll County, Maryland; his father served in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War. Key studied law at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.
The Star-Spangled Banner
During the War of 1812, Key participated in negotiations to release American prisoners of war from the British; as part of the talks, Key and two other Americans dined as guests aboard a British ship. The Americans became familiar with British plans to attack Baltimore and were not allowed off the ship. Throughout the night of September 13, 1814, they were forced to watch the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, during the Battle of Baltimore. In the morning, Key saw the American flag still standing on the shore, reported this news to the prisoners below deck, and was inspired to write a poem about the experience. He published the poem in the Patriot on September 20, 1814, and later set the words to the tune of John Stafford Smith’s “To Anacreon in Heaven.” In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order declaring Key’s song, which became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem.
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?
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And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb 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
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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,
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’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?
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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.
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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,
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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.
(1814)