By Francis Scott Key, September 20, 1814:

] 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 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 wiped out their foul footstep'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
] 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 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 forever shall wave
] O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!