The KISS Grammar Workbooks
The Star-Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843)
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 rockets
red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro'
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 thro' 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; 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 homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with victory
and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and hath 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 doth wave
O'er the land
of the free and the home of the brave! |