Star Spangled Banner

WORDS: FRANCIS SCOTT KEY, 1814, TUNE: NATIONAL ANTHEM (origin unknown, 18th century)

First Verse:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed, at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets red glare, the bomb’s bursting in air,

Gave proof thro’ 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?

Second Verse:

O thus be it ever when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation;

Blest with victory and peace,

May the heav’n rescued land praise

The Pow’r that hast made and preserved 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.

All photo credits: J. Heston. Location: Bothwell Lodge State Park, Sedalia, Missouri • 07/13/08