“O” alone is an exclamation in the vocative case. “ O“-Often this word is mistaken for “Oh,” which is an entirely different word. Three corrections have been made: verse 2, line 6, change e to o to read “now” adding a hyphen in line 7 of the same verse, and in verse 3, line 4, adding apostrophe to make “footsteps” possessive. Note this text is a regularized transcription of the first 1814 broadside printing of Key’s song (pictured). Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,Īnd this be our motto: “In God is our trust ”Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall standīetween their lov’d home and the war’s desolation,īlest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land No refuge could save the hireling and slave,įrom the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,Īnd the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave, Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution. That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,Ī home and a country, shall leave us no more? O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.Īnd where is that band who so vauntingly swore ‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave In full glory reflected now shines in the stream, Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,

What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,Īs it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?Īnd the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 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,

Words of the star spangled banner song