On June 14th, 1777, Congress adopted the flag for the newly min=
ted United States in America. We prepare to celebrate another anniversary o=
f Old Glory by singing all four stanzas in tribute:
O say can you se=
e 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 perilou=
s fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
A=
nd the rockets’ 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 h=
ost 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 hom=
e 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 wash’d out their foul footstep’s p=
ollution.
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 o=
f the free and the home of the brave.
=
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand=
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’r=
y 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 j=
ust,
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.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
"Jesus Knows Me, =
This I Love!"