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The Star-Spangled Banner
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The Star-Spangled Banner
During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, a young American lawyer and poet, boarded a
British frigate as the British bombarded Fort McHenry in
Baltimore, Maryland. Key went aboard the
ship under a flag of truce. He was trying to arrange
for the release of a prisoner held by the British
.
The British kept Key on board during the attack. As
Key watched the attack, he was so moved with
emotion that he wrote a poem about
the experience. He called the poem "Defense of Fort
McHenry." The poem was printed in a handbill
, and then it was printed in a Baltimore newspaper
.
People began singing the poem to the tune
of a well-known drinking song by Englishman, John
Stafford Smith. Eventually the poem
with the music was published under the title, The Star-
Spangled Banner, and it became very popular
. On March 3, 1931, Congress made the song our
official national anthem.
While most Americans love the song and sing it frequently at sporting events and other
occasions, some people have criticized it. They say the
song is too difficult for most people to sing.
The song begins in a relatively easy range but then
later moves to higher notes, which many people
are unable to sing. Many of these critics feel
that the national anthem of the United States should
be America the Beautiful.
The Star-Spangled Banner has several verses, but the first verse is the best known:
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, 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.
Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Shown below are several pictures. Underneath each picture write the phrase from the
angled Banner that the picture illustrates.
RA
answers