The Defense of Fort McHenry (The Star-Spangled Banner)
During the War of 1812, a noted attorney named Francis Scott Key found himself in the midst of the British onslaught against Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. After enduring nearly a full day of relentless shelling, Key was certain the British would capture the fort and raise the British ensign come morning. Yet, "by the dawn's early light" the American flag remained standing, a sight that inspired him to compose the initial lines of a poem. Back on land, Key added three more verses, giving birth to "Defence of Fort M'Henry." The lyrics were later set to the melody of a well-known British song, "To Anacreon in Heaven" and the song renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Francis Scott Key
The Defence of Fort McHenry
Baltimore
September 1814
[Verse 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 through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
[Verse 2]
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?
[Verse 3]
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havock 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 foot-steps’ pollution.
[Verse 4]
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.