Our National Anthem

When I was in school, I learned the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance, and My Country 'Tis of Thee. I don't know of any children in my community, whether they attend public or private school, who knows any of these emblems of Americana. What I did learn, though, is that there is a "National Anthem Project", which has as its goal, both to bring music to schools and to "reinvigorate" America's interest in its own song. Check out the web page. Interestingly, you have to go on a bit of a hunt to find the National Anthem's lyrics but, for your convenience, I present them here:

The Star Spangled Banner 1814 Words by Francis Scott Key, Music by John Stafford Smith 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, through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s 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 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 in 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. 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 washed 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. O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation! Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved 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!