# Do you know all the words to the "Star-Spangled Banner"? (The USA national anthem) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198 "2018-01-09T03:15:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/1 "2018-01-09T03:15:04Z")
Enquiring minds want to know. This is primarily for American citizens and residents of the United States, but if you’re not, you may still participate. Specify in a post where you’re from, please. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/2 "2018-01-09T03:28:52Z")
All of the first verse which is, realistically, the National Anthem version. I’m aware of the second verse and have sung it with lyrics in front of me but don’t know a single line from memory. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/3 "2018-01-09T03:39:43Z")
First and fourth. What can I say? I just remember stuff. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/4 "2018-01-09T03:42:24Z")
I _might_ be able to pull off the entire first verse, but I chickened out and said most/more than half. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/5 "2018-01-09T03:48:22Z")
There’s more than one verse? I only know the first. I’ve probably read the rest somewhere in grammar school, but I don’t remember a thing about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/6 "2018-01-09T03:52:18Z")
I couldn’t _say_ the first verse, but I can\* sing\* it without a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/7 "2018-01-09T04:04:21Z")
Don’t expect me to sing the Star Spangled Banner, but I know all the lyrics to the Spanish national anthem, does that count? (Doesn’t have any) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/8 "2018-01-09T04:05:58Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I couldn’t _say_ the first verse, but I can\* sing\* it without a problem. Is this like a “Mel Tillis” thing? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/9 "2018-01-09T04:19:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There’s more than one verse? Isaac Asimov devoted one of his monthly columns for _The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction_ to an appreciation of the four verses of the anthem, called “All Four Stanzas.” You can read an abridged version (which includes the text of the four verses) [here](http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm). And you can find the original, unabridged article, along with a discussion of the fact of its abridgment, [here](http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2010/09/dowdifying_asim.html). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/10 "2018-01-09T04:21:13Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I couldn’t _say_ the first verse, but I can\* sing\* it without a problem. Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I can sing the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, but I’m not sure I could say it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/11 "2018-01-09T04:31:14Z")
I know the first verse, but have only seen the others in print a few times and never have heard them sung, as I recall. Doesn’t matter; almost the only times I even hear the first verse are at sporting events. I can’t think of a situation where I would ever really need to know the rest of it except for my own entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/12 "2018-01-09T04:32:00Z")
First verse, and recognize the others, especially the fourth. The joke used to go that to detect a spy you would ask them to sing the second verse of the Star-spangled Banner. A spy would have memorized it, but no actual American would know it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/13 "2018-01-09T04:42:31Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Don’t expect me to sing the Star Spangled Banner, but I know all the lyrics to the Spanish national anthem, does that count? > > (Doesn’t have any) Except when Spain wins women’s singles in Badminton. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/14 "2018-01-09T04:45:38Z")
Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/15 "2018-01-09T08:08:53Z")
I’ve known the words of first verse for most of my life, but never really sat down and tried to parse them until my wife was assigned it as a challenge assignment in her translation class (from English to Japanese), with a comment from her teacher that it is impossible to translate accurately. Good lord, that is one unholy grammatical mess. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/16 "2018-01-09T08:17:53Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Except when Spain wins women’s singles in Badminton. What, did someone play Riego’s anthem? (Republican anthem; it’s happened quite a few times). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/17 "2018-01-09T08:37:49Z")
I know the bass part of my choir director’s arrangement, first verse only. We perform it occasionally at special occasions. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/18 "2018-01-09T08:39:57Z")
I exaggerated. I know the first verse completely, and I can make a clumsy stab at some verses from the next three. They’re bloody awful, with the lyrics falling badly into the rhythm of the music. eg. “With the foes haughTEEEEE host…” You didn’t have any options between “knowing verse one completely” and knowing all the verses completely. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/19 "2018-01-09T11:10:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > What, did someone play Riego’s anthem? (Republican anthem; it’s happened quite a few times). no, but they used Pemán’s lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/20 "2018-01-09T11:37:25Z")
First verse. I’m South African. I also know the first verses to _America, The Beautiful_ & _My Country, 'Tis of Thee_. But not _The Stars and Stripes Forever_, because it is tedium. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198.md?page=2)