Monday, June 7, 2010

National Anthem Forgotten Verses




Everyone knows the first verse or our National Anthem, and I am sure many of you can sing it with out the help of written lyrics.  We sing it at all major sporting events, political events, and periodically through the year.  We raise our hands to our hearts and cheer because we love our country, and we love what the Anthem represents.  My questions, Why doesn't anybody know or sing the remaining verses?

I cannot say that I was ever taught the remaining verses of our National Anthem.  Until a couple days ago, I assumed the National Anthem ended with the first verse.  Everyone needs to know the full song and we need to be teaching it to our youth.

United States of America 

The Star Spangled Banner 

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 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 fully 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 home 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, 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. 

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