Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, O say can you see by the dawn’s early light, While only the first stanza of the poem is sung, it has four verses in total: The poem was originally titled "The Defense of Fort M’Henry" and Key put the words to a familiar drinking song at the time, "To Anacreon in Heaven," written by British composer John Stafford Smith, according to the Kennedy Center. What ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was originally titled "He had witnessed Britain’s 25-hour bombardment of the Fort, and for Key, the raising of the American flag was a triumphant symbol of bravery and perseverance," the National Parks Service writes. As a condition of the release, the British ordered the Americans not to return to shore during the attack on Baltimore, according to .Īs a result, Key watched the battle unfold in the pouring rain - and eventually, he was able to determine that the Fort’s storm flag had survived the barrage and that by dawn, the larger revile flag was proudly raised. The Maryland-born attorney had been helping to negotiate the release of an American civilian who was captured in an earlier battle. Francis Scott Key penned his poem during a naval attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore, on the Chesapeake Bay, by British ships during the war of 1812.
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