Star-Spangled Banner
by Cleavant Derricks
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 thru 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.
Oh, 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! Oh 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!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's
desolation!
Blest with victory 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 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!
