The Star Spangled Banner

Six years and a naturalized citizen later, I still haven't really memorized the USA national anthem. I got a book mark from the library with the lyrics. I look at it everytime I read a book.

When I learned about the story of the song, it became more meaningful to me. The song was written by Francis Scott Key after a critical battle in Baltimore, Maryland. Key was a lawyer and an amateur poet. He was sent to Baltimore to secure the release of Dr. Beanes, an American prisoner of the British.

The mission was completed on a British ship. But the British was about to attack Fort McHenry, the American fort guarding Baltimore. After twenty-five hours of battle, the Americans withstood the attack. It was morning of September 14, 1814. Francis Scott Key peered through the clearing smoke. He saw the American flag waving proudly in Fort McHenry. He was so inspired by the sight that he wrote a poem to commemorate the occasion. The poem was sung to the tune of a popular British song, "To Anacreon in Heaven."

The Star-Spangled Banner was so popular and it became the official anthem of the United States of America.

Star-Spangled Banner

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, thro' the perilous fight;
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the nighth that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?