Hey, how many of you have heard the entire Star Spangled Banner? How many know the number of verses? Does anyone know ALL the verses?
Ok.
Well here are all the verses. Feel free to comment, and to practice! I'm gonna learn them all!
Star Spangled Banner By: Francis Scott Key
Oh, 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, through the perilous flight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
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?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in the dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals now discloses?
Now it catches 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.
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?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footsteps 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.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto:"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
There you have it.
I know this is gonna sound biast, but don't try to take me wrong. Read that last verse, and really think about what Key is saying. Do you think that is true of us today? I wish i could say yes, but that would be lying. Yes, to many it hold true to them, but not to all America. If it doesn't hold to all America, it's meaning is worthless.
I'd really, truly hate to Francis Scott Key to see how little of the National Anthem is sung now.
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