Thanks for being a Hymnary.org user. You are one of more than 10 million people from 200-plus countries around the world who have benefitted from the Hymnary website in 2024! If you feel moved to support our work today with a gift of any amount and a word of encouragement, we would be grateful.

You can donate online at our secure giving site.

Or, if you'd like to make a gift by check, please make it out to CCEL and mail it to:
Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
And may the promise of Advent be yours this day and always.

235. O say, can you See

1 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 thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does the Star-spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

2 On the shore dimly seen thro' 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 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!

3 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 wash'd 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!

4 O thus be it e'er when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd 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!

Text Information
First Line: O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light
Title: O say, can you See
Author: F. S. Key (1814)
Refrain First Line: O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
Language: English
Publication Date: 1918
Topic: Temperance and National: National
Tune Information
Name: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
Composer: J. S. Smith (1775)
Key: B♭ Major



Media
More media are available on the text authority and tune authority pages.

Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.