The Star-Spangled Banner - Popular

The Star Spangled Banner
Brent Bailey





. . . . . . . . . . . .
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 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 in the stream.
'Tis the star spangled banner
Oh long may it wave,
And where is the band,
Who so vauntingly swore.
'Mid the havoc of war,
And the battle's confusion,
A home and a country,
they'd leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out,
Their foul foot step'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,
Oh thus be it ever when
free men shall stand.
Between their loved homes,