On the Shelf

National Anthems: The United States

“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States, but that was not its original name. After witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry, in Outer Baltimore Harbor, by British ships of the Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, wrote a poem on September 14, 1814, entitled “Defence of Fort M’Henry”. Key gave the poem to his brother-in-law, Joseph H. Nicholson, who saw that the words fit the popular melody, “The Anacreontic Song”, by English composer John Stafford Smith. On September 20, 1814, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the song, with the note “Tune: Anacreon in Heaven”.

The song quickly became popular, with several newspapers across the then-states printing it. Soon after, Thomas Carr of the Carr Music Store in Baltimore, published the words and music together under the title “The Star Spangled Banner”.

The U.S. Navy officially adopted the song in 1889. In 1930, Veterans of Foreign Wars started a petition for the U.S. to officially recognize “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. President Herbert Hoover signed into law the bill making it such on March 4, 1931.

The song has four stanzas, although most United Statesians probably only know the first, due to its constant use as a performance piece at sports events and other venues. Here are all four stanzas:

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 through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, 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 dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half 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 washed 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.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,

Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd 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.