O say can you see, by the dawnās early light,
What so proudly we hailād at the twilightās last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
Oāer the ramparts we watchād were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocketās 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
Oāer the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foeās haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, oāer the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morningās first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
āTis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
Oāer the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - āIn God is our trust,ā
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
Oāer the land of the free and the home of the brave.
oil painting by James Gurney