O! say can you see by the dawn\'s early lightWhat 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 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.Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet waveO\'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,\nWhere the foe\'s haughty host in dread silence reposes,\nWhat is that which the breeze, o\'er the towering steep,\nAs it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?\nNow it catches the gleam of the morning\'s first beam,\nIn full glory reflectednow shines in the stream:\n\'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave\nO\'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!\n\nAnd where is that band who so vauntingly swore\nThat the havoc of war and the battle\'s confusion,\nA home and a country should leave us no more!\nTheir blood has washed outtheir foul footsteps\' pollution.\nNo refuge could save the hireling and slave\nFrom the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:\nAnd the star-spangled banner in triumph doth waveO\'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand\nBetween their loved home and the war\'s desolation!\nBlest with victory and peace, may the heav\'n rescued land\nPraise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.\nThen conquer we must, when our cause it is just,\nAnd this be our motto: \'In God is our trust.\'\nAnd the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave\nO\'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!\n\n-----------------------------------\nThe Star-Spangled Banner\" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, athen 35-year-old amateur poet who wrote \"Defence of Fort McHenry\"[1] after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry at Baltimore, Maryland, by Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812.\n\nThe poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a London social club. \"The Anacreontic Song\" (or \"To Anacreon in Heaven\"), set to various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Key\'s poem and renamed \"The Star-Spangled Banner\", it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range ofone and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth (\"O thus be it ever when free men shall stand ...\") added on more formal occasions. \n\nmore info:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner 2008, Banner, Fourth, July, Spangled, Star, The, wizardeal