US National Anthem Lyrics

US National Anthem Lyrics 

US National Anthem with Lyrics/ American National Anthem lyrics/ Star-Spangled Banner lyrics 

“Star-Spangled Banner” is the National anthem of the United States, written by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key on 14 September, 1814. 

These lyrics, “The Star- Spangled Banner” come from the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, written by Francis Scott Key and were set to the tune of a popular British song, “Anacreontic Song” or “Anacreon in Heaven” which was written by John Stafford Smith around 1775. Then the poem renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and it became popular patriotic song in U.S. 

The poem has four stanzas but only the first stanza is generally sung today. 18 years after Francis’s death (1843), Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was an American physician and poet, added a fifth stanza to the song, in 1861. 

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially adopted by the United States Navy, in 1899. On 3 March, 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was made the National anthem by a congressional resolution which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. 

 

US National Anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” Lyrics 

 
 

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,  

through 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  

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 fully glory reflected  

now shines in the stream: 
'Tis the star-spangled 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 star-spangled 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 star-spangled banner  

in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free  

and the home of the brave.