To celebrate today:

IN DEFENSE OF FORT M'HENRY
By Francis Scott Key

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!

---

I think I like the second verse, best, for the way the viewer's realization and the coming dawn unfolds gradually after a long night. That's just great descriptive writing, period.

The third and fourth verses are an example of Ugly Americanism at its worst, imnsho, but understandable, considering the speaker's perspective at that moment in time. And it's good to remember that it's there.

But perhaps it's actually more patriotic to stop the song at the end of the first verse. To leave ourselves with the question, rather than the smug certainty -- not questioning whether our flag is secure, so much, though, but our freedoms and our bravery.

That banner is still waving (and adorning lapels everywhere). But is it still waving over the land of the free?

[eta: I've been trying to sing this whole thing out loud, but try as I might, I'm having trouble getting the meter of the third verse to match the tune... The accents, or the syllables just seem a little bit off. Can any of you have better luck with it?]