The Star Spangled Banner

Original Lyrics

Modern Translation

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hail'd 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 rocket's red glare, the bomb 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 in 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 wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom 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.

Observe the US flag, whose ‘broad stripes and bright stars’ continued to stream or flap as the battle below raged. Now, as the new day dawns following the US defeat of the British fleet, the flag continues to ‘wave’ over the country which is still ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’, now the American troops have defended their soil against the Brits.

The mists from the sea obscure the flag from view, while the wind blowing it obscures it, before blowing it back into place, revealing it again. Counterbalancing this attention to mist and obscurity, there’s an emphasis on light: the ‘morning’s first beam’ of sunlight ‘shines’ in ‘full glory’ on the ‘banner’ – a banner itself displaying stars, of course.

The British navy ‘vauntingly swore’ that the confusion of battle would leave the Americans without a home or a country. But, in a clever image, Key says that the confident footprints the British left as they marched to attack the American fort have been washed away by the blood of the British wounded and slain; it’s a neat metaphor that encapsulates the idea of arrogance being destroyed by humiliating defeat.

The freedom of the American people, ‘freemen’ who no longer live under the British yoke. But Francis Scott Key attributes the American victory to God, ‘the Power that hath made and preserved us as nation’. Americans place their trust in God for supporting their campaign, and their defence of their new nation. America is a ‘Heav’n rescued land’, a country saved from destruction by God’s hand.