The second verse

[Tiger]

S!~ All,

I never realized that there was another verse to the Star Spangled Banner. Check it out;

[Redhornet]

[Schwack]

It has four verses all together:

O! 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 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 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.

O! 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!

[Tiger]

I see. So, it's actually the fourth verse. Thanks for that, Schwack.

S!~

[George Formby]

sounds a lil made up....

[Schwack]

That's a negative:

“Chief Justice Taney, Mr. Key's brother-in-law, says, 'The scene which he describes, and the warm spirit of patriotism which breathes in the song, were not the offspring of mere fancy or poetic imagination. He describes what he actually saw, and he tells us what he felt while witnessing the conflict, and what he felt when the battle was over and the victory won by his countrymen. Every word came warm from his heart, and for that reason, even more than its poetical merit, it never fails to find response in the hearts of those who listen to it. It was originally called The Defense of Fort M'Henry, and this is the heading given it when first printed on slips and published in The Baltimore American.'”

From Story of the American flag with Patriotic Selections and Incidents, published 1903

Three pages later the four stanzas quoted above are printed. I have seen the same words printed in a publication from 1826, which also states that they are well-known to the audience. They are authentic.

[Tiger]

I'm not surprised that it is authentic. I got the same feeling listening to the video above as I do when I hear the Star Spangled Banner to this very day.

[Derring]

I would point out the Federal Department of Education and thier conspiracy with the Text Book publishers to present 'politically correct' perversions of history.

But, this 'ignorant southern protestant caucasian male rasist bigot' may offend the sensitives of some members.

So, I will not.

[RAF209_Benge]

All four verses also used to be published in the Boy Scout Handbook as well as the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and America