ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How does The Star Spangled Banner represent America?
CONTEXT:
Francis Scott Key (1780-1843) was an amateur poet and well-known lawyer who argued before the US Supreme Court. From Frederick, Maryland, he wrote a poem entitled “The Defense of Fort M’Henry” which would eventually become “The Star Spangled Banner.”
In 1814 the British Army burned Washington, DC, and a friend of Key’s, William Beanes, was arrested by the British and taken to a prison ship. With the permission of US President Madison, Keys went to Baltimore, Maryland. With the help of an American agent for prisoners of war, Keys located his friend and secured his release. However, they had overheard plans for the upcoming British attack on Baltimore, and thus they could not return to shore until after the battle.
The British began to fire upon Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on September 13; the attack lasted 25 hours. Key witnessed the bombardment throughout the night, not knowing how the battle was going. But in the morning on September 14 he saw the large (30 X 42 feet) American garrison flag flying over the fort (the flag is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History). The flag Key observed had 15 stripes and 15 stars (the current 13 stripes limit was not adopted until 1818). Key began composing his poem on the back of a letter he kept in his pocket. It was published first as a broadside that week and was soon set to song lyrics. By the Civil War it was a popular song for national unity and the US military began using it in the 1890s for flag ceremonies.
Although it is a difficult song to sing and some lyrics are considered controversial, it became increasingly popular and was the unofficial national anthem by the end of the 19th century. In April 1930 the House of Representatives passed a bill introduced by Representative John Linthicum of Maryland to make “The Star-Spangled Banner” the nation’s official anthem. Despite critics who disliked the melody or felt the law unnecessary, the Senate passed the bill the following year, and President Herbert Hoover signed it into law on March 2, 1931.
TEXT:
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d 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 wash’d out their foul footstep’s 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 lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d 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.
INQUIRY:
- Key was a slave owner, although as an attorney he represented several slaves in their search for freedom. He was a leader in the American Colonization Society, although he was against the abolition movement. The third verse is often seen as controversial, with its reference to slave and hireling; but many historians see this as a reference to the British Army in the War of 1812, including the Corps of Colonial Marines, British free troops of color who had formerly been slaves. How might this be misunderstood by an audience today?
- Examine the last two lines of each stanza of the poem. How does the image of the star spangled banner change? What is the progression?
- How does the punctuation of the last line change from stanza to stanza? What does that represent?
- What is the effect of repeating the last line at the end of each stanza?
- What does the sight of the flag represent in the first stanza? Does that change over the course of the poem? Justify your response.
- Remembering that this was originally a poem written during a battle, what was the tone of this work? What was the mood?
- Why do you believe the first stanza was adopted as our national anthem? What does it say about the US?
- Choose a national anthem from another country (see https://nationalanthems.info/ for information). Research the anthem and the country and compare it to the American national anthem. How does that anthem represent the country from which it originates?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-lyrics.aspx
https://guides.loc.gov/star-spangled-banner/beginning-your-research
https://www.loc.gov/collections/patriotic-melodies/articles-and-essays/star-spangled-banner/
Read Closely 