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During the legendary Battle of Baltimore, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key was sent as an emissary to the British attack fleet. Throughout the epic battle, he was held on board the British flagship, with naught but the roar of the cannonade and the bellow of English sailors singing their drinking songs for company.

It was near dawn, during one such song, still popular in some parts of England, that inspiration struck. Hurriedly, Key grabbed pen and paper, and laid down the words to that very tune that would become the anthem for the victorious young nation.

Key's tale parallels that of America during the war. Held siege by the British, yet ever defiant, both emerged in the dawn's early light, triumphant And free.

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 the Star Spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist 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 on 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!

Oh! Thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r 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!

Our Anthem, like our Nation, ironically arose out of too much English drink. Both came out of our struggles for freedom, and even as our forefathers labored to create something of our own, they drew on that heritage.

Key's masterpiece is symbolic of the struggles of early America; he was under seige, but even so, took inspiration from the English and created something greater.

Learn more about this author, Bryan Belrad.
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