The lyrics of the national anthem of the United State of America were written on September 14, 1814, by Francis Scott Key, a professional attorney who spent his leisure time as an amateur poet.
The song was intended to glorify the fierce resistance put up by the American Insurgents during the Baltimore battle, which was the last in the War of Independence. American volunteer servicemen defended the bombing of the Mc Henry Fort attacked by British warships which had entered the Chesapeake Bay. Thanks to their heroism and sacrifice, the Star-Spangled Banner continued to fly proudly over the fort.
The poem was transcribed into music using the work of the English composer John Stafford Smith To Anacreon in Heaven, which was the anthem of an English club... The ensemble, considered as a patriotic song since the end of the 19th century by the US army, became the national anthem thanks to a Congress decision of March 3, 1931.
Though the song has four stanzas, only the first verse and the chorus are presently sung.
I -
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd 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.
Chorus - Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
II - 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 full glory reflected now shines in the stream
Chorus - Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
III - 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 of their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave
Chorus - And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
IV - Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Bles't 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 ».
Chorus - And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.