Embedded Files
Today we will examine the words of the Star Spangled Banner, and truly understand what our National Anthem states.
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 thru the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that starspangled 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 in the stream: ‘Tis the starspangled banner! Oh 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 starspangled 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 home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land Praise the Power that hath 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 starspangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The current location of the ORIGINAL Star Spangled Banner, known as the Ft. McHenry Garrison flag, is the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History in Washington D.C. It currently has it's own permanent display on the main floor.
It has undergone major restoration projects more than once. The most recent was in 1999, and as you can see from the picture above, was a highly technical process in which technicians laid on a scaffolding that was hung over the flag so that they would not touch, or otherwise stress the flag itself as they worked.
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