The Star-Spangled Banner
En tidlig trykt versjon av USAs nasjonalsang, The Star-Spangled Banner, trykt i 1814.

USAs nasjonalsang, som gjerne blir kalt The Star-Spangled Banner, ble skrevet av en ung sakfører fra Maryland, Francis Scott Key (1779–1843). Key befant seg på en slupp på havna i Baltimore 13. september 1814, da engelske krigsskip angrep Fort McHenry. Fortet holdt stand til tross for harde engelske angrep i løpet av natten. Dette inspirerte Key til å skrive sangen, som snart ble meget populær.

I 1931 ble den gjort til offisiell nasjonalsang av Kongressen. Melodien er fra en gammel engelsk drikkevise.

Sangtekst

The Star-Spangled Banner
Francis Scott Keys originale manuskript til The Star-Spangled Banner.

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, 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, 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, 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.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation. Blest with vict'ry 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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