Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
About This Quote
These lines conclude the first stanza of Francis Scott Key’s poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” written in September 1814 during the War of 1812. Key, a Baltimore lawyer, witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor from a vessel where he was temporarily detained while negotiating the release of an American prisoner. Through the night he could not tell whether the fort had held; at dawn he saw the large U.S. garrison flag still flying, signaling American resistance and survival. The poem was quickly printed and circulated, set to the tune of the popular song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and later became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Interpretation
The couplet frames the flag as a visible test of national endurance. Key’s repeated question—whether the banner “yet wave[s]”—captures the suspense of a nation under attack and the uncertainty of the night battle, resolved by the morning sight of the flag. “Land of the free” and “home of the brave” compress a civic ideal (liberty) and a martial virtue (courage) into a memorable refrain, turning a specific military episode into a broader statement of national identity. The lines’ power lies in linking the survival of a symbol to the survival of the political community and its professed values.
Extended Quotation
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 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;
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Variations
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
Source
Francis Scott Key, “Defence of Fort M’Henry” (poem), written September 1814; first published in Baltimore as a broadside/circular under that title (later known as “The Star-Spangled Banner”).
