Quote#Politics & Power
O say can you see by the dawn's early light
Quote byFrancis Scott Key · 1779–1843
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Star-Spangled Banner (1814), A line in the final stanzas is comparable to "It made and preserves us a nation" in The Flag of our Union by George Pope Morris..
English (original)
O say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming
— Francis Scott Key
More from Francis Scott Key
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
If we believe in the existence of a great moral and political evil amongst us, and that duty, honour, and interest, call upon us to prepare the way for its removal, we must act.
Yet yield not to despair! be born again, And thou shalt live a life of joy and peace, Shall die a death of triumph, and thy strain Be changed to notes of rapture ne'er to cease.
When the warrior returns, from the battle afar, To the home and the country he nobly defended, O! warm be the welcome to gladden his ear, And loud be the joy that his perils are ended: In the full tide of song let his fame roll along, To …
So sings the world's fond slave! so flies the dream Of life's gay morn; so sinks the meteor ray Of fancy into darkness; and no beam Of purer light shines on the wanderer's way.
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.