Star-Spangled Banner, The

noun

1. Stars and Stripes.
2. (italics) the national anthem of the United States of America, based on a poem written by Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, and set by him to the melody of the English song To Anacreon in Heaven: officially adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1931.

“The Star-Spangled Banner”

1. The National Anthem of the United States . Francis Scott Key wrote the words during the War of 1812 , when he saw the flag of the United States still flying over Fort McHenry, Maryland , after a night of attack by British troops. The tune is from a British popular song of the day. The first stanza is:

   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, thro' 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 thro' 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?