The Star-Spangled Banner

1. O! say can you seeby the dawn’s early light,What so proudly we hailedat the twilight’s last gleaming,Whose broad stripes and bright starsthrough 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 nightthat our flag was still there;O! say does that star-spangledbanner yet wave,O’er the land of the freeand the home of the brave?

2.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.

3.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.

4.O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved 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 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!

Text: Francis Scott Key (1814)

A Note on the German Translation

A German version of the anthem was created by Hermann Seele in 1851 and was sung by German-Americans until around 1917. The full German translation can be found on the German version of this page.