The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry",[2] a poem written by Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Outer Baltimore Harbor in the Patapsco River during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory.
"Star-Spangled Banner" redirects here. For other uses, see Star-Spangled Banner (disambiguation).Lyrics
Francis Scott Key, 1814
John Stafford Smith, c. 1773
March 3, 1931[1]
”Hail, Columbia” (de facto)
”My Country, 'Tis of Thee” (de facto)
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. "To Anacreon in Heaven" (or "The Anacreontic Song"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very difficult to sing, in part because the melody sung today is the soprano part. Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was first recognized for official use by the U.S. Navy in 1889. On March 3, 1931, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution (46 Stat. 1508) making the song the official national anthem of the United States, which President Herbert Hoover signed into law. The resolution is now codified at .
References in film, television, literature
Several films have their titles taken from the song's lyrics. These include the G.I. Joe episode Red Rocket's Glare; the Columbo episode By Dawn's Early Light; two films titled Dawn's Early Light (2000[71] and 2005);[72] two made-for-TV features titled By Dawn's Early Light (1990[73] and 2000);[74] two films titled So Proudly We Hail (1943[75] and 1990);[76] a feature film (1977)[77] and a short (2005)[78] and a novel titled Twilight's Last Gleaming; Rocket's Red Glare;[79] and four films titled Home of the Brave (1949,[80] 1986,[81] 2004,[82] and 2006).[83] A 1936 short titled The Song of a Nation from Warner Bros. Pictures shows a version of the origin of the song.[84] The title of Isaac Asimov's 1980 short story "No Refuge Could Save" is a reference to the song's third verse, and the obscurity of this verse is a major plot point.[85]
Translations
As a result of immigration to the United States and the incorporation of non-English-speaking people into the country, the lyrics of the song have been translated into other languages. In 1861, it was translated into German.[95] The Library of Congress also has record of a Spanish-language version from 1919.[96] It has since been translated into Hebrew[97] and Yiddish by Jewish immigrants,[98] Latin American Spanish (with one version popularized during immigration reform protests in 2006),[99] French by Acadians of Louisiana,[100] Samoan,[101] and Irish.[102] The third verse of the anthem has also been translated into Latin.[103]
With regard to the indigenous languages of North America, there are versions in Navajo[104][105][106] and Cherokee.[107]