O’er the ramparts we watched, 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, 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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