Over the months, we have written much about how, and when, if it weren’t for sporting events, would we hear our National Anthem? In fact, one of our most popular posts in recent memory was about just that, a post entitled “Our National Anthem: When … Where … and Whitney.”
That was back in April, and it is still one of our most viewed posts … even though, for copyright reasons, Youtube took off Whitney’s unforgettable performance at the Super Bowl, we still feature her incredible singing of the National Anthem in in Norfolk, Va, during her “Welcome Home, Heroes” concert, on that post.
Here’s a direct link back to that post:
https://pastorappreciationblog.com/2014/02/09/our-national-anthem-when-where-and-whitney/
So, after election day this week, the folks over at Poets.org featured all of the verses to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” by Francis Scott Key.
We’ve featured the words before, but for some reason, today, the way the poem ends really struck me.
In the last stanza are these words:
“Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation …
And this be our motto— “In God is our trust” …
I thought … How about that? This is our, the United States of America’s National Anthem, and that’s part of the way it ends …
Since we don’t see that part much … and, really, how often do we get to see all of the words, here they are for you:
The Star-Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Key
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 rocket’s 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 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, now conceals, now 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; O 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 and 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!
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes 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, for 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.
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