The Riverside song book/The Star-Spangled Banner

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Francis Scott Key. Samuel Arnold.

Maestoso.

1. 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 thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs burst - in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there;

O ! say does the Star-spangled Banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

2. On the shore dimly seen thro' 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 catch - es 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! ​

3. And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's con - fusion

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 hire - ling an 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.

4. O! thus be it e'er when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land

Praise the Pow'r 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.