Do Americans realize the meaning, the artistry of that song? An answer may be found by observing that when our national anthem is announced, people usually stand at attention and sing just the opening stanza— the STANZA OF DOUBT. Recall its lines:

Oh 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 rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thru 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?

These lines, picturing the struggle, voice the poet’s anxiety, his grave doubt over the outcome. “Can you see our flag?” “Does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave?” To sing merely these questioning lines is not fairly to begin the stirring anthem.

Only when we reach the second stanza—the STANZA OF VICTORY do we touch the heart of the great lyric. Here the poet gives America a new vision of our flag, inspiring a deeper love for this colorful symbol of liberty. Note its moving lines:

On the shore, dimly seen thru 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 on the stream;
’Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

This is a thrilling picture of Old Glory rising out of the night into the morning, resplendent, triumphant.

Next in stanza three, comes a natural outburst of the young patriot’s feeling—A TAUNT TO THE ENEMY.

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.

These are fighting lines, written in the joy of victory. It was America’s turn to exult. The enemy had failed to bring down our flag. Its baffled, beaten fleet was sailing away; its land forces, trying to take Baltimore, were defeated, and its general, who had led in the destruction of our Capital, was slain. Young Francis Scott Key naturally voiced relief and gladness at this moment of triumph, yet in his lines also rang defiance and a warning to all foes of freedom. For this sacred heritage, our forefathers gave their lives; and to defend and preserve it, millions of Americans have made the supreme sacrifice.

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