The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" (Navajo: Dah Naatʼaʼí Sǫʼ bił Sinil) is the national anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to it in 1814 after seeing British ships attacking Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland during the War of 1812.
The words are set to the music of a British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song has 4 stanzas but only the first one is usually sung.
LyricsEdit
English originalEdit
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 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;
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 thro’ the mist 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. 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 footstep’s 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 homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r 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.
Translations into other local languagesEdit
Navajo translation (used in the Navajo Nation) |
Spanish translation | Samoan translation (used in American Samoa) |
---|---|---|
Yá shoo danółʼį́į́ʼ |
Oh decid, ¿podéis ver, a la temprana luz de la aurora, |
Aue! Se'i e vaai, le malama o ataata mai |
Noodǫ́ǫ́z dóó bizǫʼ disxǫs |
En la orilla, escasamente visible entre la niebla del mar, |
|
Áh, hoolʼáágóó bineʼ neidą́ |
¿Y dónde está esa banda que juró con tanta prepotencia, |
|
Tʼóó shį́į́ éí sǫʼ bił sinilgo |
¡Oh, que siempre sea así cuando los hombres libres se mantengan firmes |
MediaEdit
Other websitesEdit
- Library of Congress article
- National Museum of American History Archived 2008-01-29 at the Wayback Machine article
- Maryland Online Encyclopedia article
- British Attack on Ft. McHenry Launched from Bermuda Archived 2018-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Encyclopedia Smithsonian article on "The Star-Spangled Banner" Archived 2007-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
- "Star-Mangled Banner: A look at some controversial, and botched, renditions of our national anthem"
- "The Star-Spangled Banner" by John A. Carpenter Archived 2007-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Easybyte—free easy piano arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner / Anacreon in Heaven"
- "Stars and Stripes Forever" Archived 2007-01-12 at the Wayback Machine City Pages, July 4, 2001
- "The Toughest 2 Minutes"