# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/41 "2018-01-10T00:06:52Z")
Living outside the US, I haven’t been called upon to sign it in decades, so I wrote down the first verse as best I could remember it: Oh say can you see through the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming Whose dark stripes and bright stars Through the perilous night O’er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming And the rockets’ red glare The bombs bursting in air Gave truth to the — 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. There’s a Lady Mondegreen or two in there, and a missing word, so I couldn’t in good conscious answer “all of the first verse.” But if I were in a group of people singing, I’d probably be prompted to get it pretty much right. ---
**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 10, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/42 "2018-01-10T00:09:38Z")
Who remembers when TV channels did NOT run all night, and there was a signoff, usually at midnight, with the national anthem? For a while, we lived in Niagara Falls, NY, and I loved the CBC signoff with “O Canada!” Beautiful anthem. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/43 "2018-01-10T00:19:02Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > _And the rockets’ red glare > The bombs bursting in air > **Gave truth to the —** > That our flag was still there_ _And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, **gave proof through the night** that our flag was still there._ In the original text (it was a poem before it was set to the tune of “Anacreon in Heaven”), I believe Key used the vocative “O,” rather than the exclamatory “Oh.” And yes, I used to stay up past midnight on weekends so I could watch Laurel and Hardy and the station signoff in the wee hours of the morning. I remember doing this even when I was a preschooler. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/44 "2018-01-10T00:22:01Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > \*Whose \*\*dark \*_stripes and bright stars > Through the perilous **night** _ \*Whose \*\*\*broad \*\*_stripes and bright stars through the perilous **fight** _ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/45 "2018-01-10T00:27:12Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > The new mayor of St Paul knows all four, and he wanted the third verse sung at his inauguration, because he said it was an ode to slavery, so he wanted to include it. Hardly an “ode.” It merely reflects what was a deplorable fact of life in the United States at that time. _No refuge could save the hireling or slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave._ Meaning everyone was threatened by the British. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/46 "2018-01-10T00:35:07Z")
Why no option for “all of the first verse and SOME of the second”? First verse asks a question, second verse answers it. But it’s rarely sung. I particularly like “half conceals, half discloses.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/47 "2018-01-10T00:43:46Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > First verse asks a question, second verse answers it. But it’s rarely sung. I particularly like “half conceals, half discloses.” I’m partial to _… where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes?_ _ **In Dread Silence** _ would make a great title for a Tom-Clancyish thriller. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/48 "2018-01-10T00:46:36Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute – right hand lifted, palm downward, to align with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” At the words, “to my Flag,” **the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation;** whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side. > — From The Youth’s Companion, 65 (1892): 446–447. Jeeze Louise. Glad _that_ never caught on… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/49 "2018-01-10T00:56:48Z")
> [@jkirkman](#): > > At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute – right hand lifted, palm downward, to align with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” At the words, “to my Flag,” the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side. > — From The Youth’s Companion, 65 (1892): 446–447. For the record, this was the salute of the Roman Republic centuries before it came to be associated with modern Fascism or Nazism. (Also for the record, fasces are themselves symbols of republican rule, which is why they’re featured so prominently in the US Congress.) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/50 "2018-01-10T01:08:16Z")
n/m ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/51 "2018-01-10T01:19:02Z")
I know the first verse of The Star Spangled Banner, God Save the Queen, and O Canada. As much as I despise Trump, I can imagine that with all the information that a president gets in one day, I can imagine stumbling over the lyrics after a long day. I would, however, make damn sure I didn’t do it right after giving a speech about the anthem. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/52 "2018-01-10T01:51:47Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 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). Interesting. I heard Asimov sing all four verses, at the 1970 MITSFS picnic, the last one he attended before he fled to New York. He told us that he memorized them to use when someone accused him of being an unpatriotic pinko (not quite his word, but unpatriotic was). He would then challenge the “true patriot” as to who knew more of the Star Spangled Banner. In this case my post is my cite. ---
**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 10, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/53 "2018-01-10T01:54:07Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Why no option for “all of the first verse and SOME of the second”? > > First verse asks a question, second verse answers it. But it’s rarely sung. I particularly like “half conceals, half discloses.” No particular reason. You’re welcome to set up your own poll. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/54 "2018-01-10T01:54:28Z")
I know the first and fourth by heart. At one time I knew all the verses. We had to learn them at school. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/55 "2018-01-10T04:21:14Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > \*Whose \*\*\*broad \*\*_stripes and bright stars > through the perilous **fight** _ I know. Like I said, Lady Mondegreen! (Or I think that at least some of my mistakes are sort of Lady Mondegreens. Maybe they don’t fit the definition, quite.) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/56 "2018-01-10T04:27:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 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. I looked at the link **Thudlow Boink** gave…nothing beyond the first rings any bells whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/57 "2018-01-10T04:48:22Z")
Add me to the list of people who were wondering what happened to the “all four verses” option. I typically start singing alternate versions if I’m singing it more than once in quick succession – say, watching the Olympics. I’ll start by singing along to the first verse, then the second, then the third, etc. Sometimes I’ll sing along with a random verse just for fun. And if I’m feeling particularly patriotic, I’ll sing all four verses in the shower. I also know all four verses of _America the Beautiful_. My father and I once sang them together while driving through Yellowstone, while my mother rolled her eyes. It’s one of my favorite memories. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/58 "2018-01-10T05:09:05Z")
I know only the first verse. I also know the words to G-d Save the Queen, the German national anthem, and the Canadian national anthem (but only in French). ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/59 "2018-01-10T05:09:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > 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. I remember hearing about a film where German or Russian spies were detected when they started to sing the second verse. However, googling it doesn’t bring up any hits. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/60 "2018-01-10T05:35:42Z")
I know all verses of the British and German anthems (there are three of the latter, but they only use one nowadays), but just the first verses of the French and Canadian ones. I also know “_Die Fahne Hoch_” and the Brezhnev-era Soviet anthem. [Previous 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) [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=4)