Proof Through The Night That Our Flag Was Still There
The Story Behind The Words
This brings me to tears every time, and I always post it on July 4.
Lyrics
Sheet music version
"The Star-Spangled Banner" has four verses, although the second through fourth verses are not commonly performed.[66]
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.
Alternative lyrics
In a version hand-written by Francis Scott Key in 1840, the third line reads: "Whose bright stars and broad stripes, through the clouds of the fight".[67]
Hung my American flag in front of my house in Boulder today and it felt like an act of civil disobedience. Seems the only flags permitted in this woke enclave are for LGBTQ pride or Ukraine. Thank you for this reminder of what it cost for us to win this country. I grieve to see how cheaply many of my countrymen now hold it.
Thank you, Celia. How wonderful to see this tiny, upstart nation take on the greatest naval military force in the world, and line up with their lives, man after man to hold up the flag. They would not surrender physically to the Powers that Be....and they would not surrender spiritually to the Dominion also firing at them in the Dark......Sovereignity.