# 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:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/101 "2018-01-12T22:56:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > In Good Citizenship Indoctrination Class, aka elementary school music, we sang _America The Beautiful_, _My Country Tis of Thee_, _This Land is Your Land_, _You’re a Grand Old Flag_ and an odd selection of Civil War evoking ditties for a Chicago suburban school such as _Dixie_, _Glory, Glory Hallelujah_, and _As The Caissons Go Rolling Along_. [Edit: That last one evidently comes well after the Civil War but the term ‘caissons’ always struck my young mind as antiquated so I connected the two] Glory Glory Hallelujah is the Battle Hymn of the Republic, why it would be odd for a northern city like Chicago is less than obvious. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/102 "2018-01-13T03:48:39Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > 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. I do ! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA) I remeber this very clearly . ---
**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 13, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/103 "2018-01-13T03:49:55Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > I do ! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA) Very cool! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/104 "2018-01-13T06:37:01Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > I do ! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHqA83gdBwA) I remeber this very clearly . Me too. Usually after SNL. So I just discovered that the line is “whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight” All this time I’ve been singing it “through the perilous FLIGHT.” I never thought "flight"made sense, but it’s an old - timey song so I assumed the failure to understand was on me. I was correct about failing to understand, just not in the way I thought. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/105 "2018-01-13T09:01:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > 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. I’m not familiar with that interpretation. I’ve heard the argument that it refers to Key’s [supposed] contempt for the mercenaries and slaves who fought for the British, the slaves of course doing so on the promise of freedom. I’ve also read that it refers to those who suffered impressment by the British. In your interpretation, “the hireling or slave” means everyone? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/106 "2018-01-13T10:50:17Z")
Do I know all the words to “The Star Spangled Banner”? Oh, Lordy, yes. I’m a sports fan, in Canada, and given all the hockey games between Canadian and US teams, that are broadcast daily on our TV networks, I hear “The Star Spangled Banner” about six times a day, between September and June. I hate to say it, but I know it better than our own national anthem, given that Parliament changes the words of ours frequently, according to the tastes and mores of the day. Seriously, if you ever listen to the Canadian crowd at a sports event trying to sing “O Canada,” it will sound like mumbling. We Boomers will sing the words we were taught years ago, our kids will sing what they were taught, and our grandkids will sing what they were taught. All will be different, and I’m not even accounting for those who feel they have to sing in French. I hate to say it, but as a Canadian, I know the US national anthem better than I know our own. ---
**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 13, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/107 "2018-01-13T15:37:51Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I’m not familiar with that interpretation. I’ve heard the argument that it refers to Key’s [supposed] contempt for the mercenaries and slaves who fought for the British, the slaves of course doing so on the promise of freedom. I’ve also read that it refers to those who suffered impressment by the British. In your interpretation, “the hireling or slave” means everyone? That is how I’ve always interpreted it, yes. Though I admit your interpretation makes some sense as well. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/108 "2018-01-13T16:18:39Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > No box for all \*four \*verses, not two, but that’s my entry. Ditto. I surprise people when I say I can do that. ---
**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 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/109 "2018-01-13T16:18:50Z")
I’ve never inquired into Key’s thinking but it seems logical to me “everyone is threatened by the British” is the message he’d want to convey during the War of 1812. It also occurs to me that Ft McHenry is in Baltimore, and Maryland was indeed a slave state at that time. So perhaps he was saying that not even American slaves were safe. Were the British emancipating and enlisting slaves in the American territories they controlled? For that matter, did they use mercenaries in the War of 1812 as they did during the American Revolution? I must admit I’ve never considered this aspect of the conflict. I believe they did have some West Indian troops at the Battle of New Orleans, but I don’t know if they were freed slaves or mercenaries. So far as I know, they enlisted just like other regulars of the British Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/110 "2018-01-13T16:57:29Z")
Verses 1, 2, and 4 are in the LDS hymnbook, so I know all of those. I don’t think I’ve ever sung the third verse. At my dad’s retirement ceremony last year (Air Force) he asked my brother to sing the first and fourth verse. A lot of people mentioned afterwards that they had never heard the other verse. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/111 "2018-01-13T21:57:10Z")
I’ve given more thought into the matter of the “hirelings and slaves” line referring to all those threatened by the British, and I’m convinced that’s not what Key was referring to. The third verse is both angry and triumphant: \*And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion A home and a Country should leave us no more? \* So where are the Brits who swore that the war and the bombardment of Fort McHenry would leave us without a home and country? _Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution._ British blood has washed out the foulness of their very footsteps [on our land]. _No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave_ There’s no refuge that could protect the “hireling and slave”: they’re going to endure the terror of flight, or they’re going to die. It hardly seems likely that Key, as effusively triumphant as he was throughout the poem, would say that everyone under the threat of the Brits was going to run or die. It’s not a verse of warning; it’s a grind-‘em-under-your-heel, in-your-face stanza. The “hireling” is widely regarded as referring to mercenaries. An entire Regiment of Swiss mercenaries fought on the side of the Brits in the War of 1812. It’s the word “slaves” that’s disputed. It could well refer to slaves who fought for the Brits on the promise of freedom. Thousands of Blacks made their way to British troops or rowed their way to British ships. Britain’s Corps of Colonial Marines, which was made up entirely of former slaves, had helped win the Battle of Bladensburg, where Key had served (though not in combat). Key, a product of his times, was fiercely pro-slavery and thought Blacks were intellectually inferior. Or it could refer to those Americans who were impressed, as Key resented impressment. Historians disagree on which of those two interpretations is accurate, but I can’t find anything suggesting a “threatened by Britain” school of thought among them. Personally, I think it’s one of the lesser works in our collective body of patriotic songs, but it’s been consecrated by use and is regarded as sacred by most Americans. I tear up when it’s played at events, but then, I tear up at “America the Beautiful,” my mother’s favorite song, or “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” ---
**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 13, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/112 "2018-01-13T22:36:37Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > So “from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” means the Brits and their minions were forced to retreat and/or die. Definitely possible. Maybe by “slaves” he was referring to impressed Americans? Do you have some references for these interpretations of Key’s poem? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/113 "2018-01-13T23:13:29Z")
_Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, Of thee I sing._ (With a nod toward Archie Bunker) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/114 "2018-01-14T05:36:13Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > So “from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” means the Brits and their minions were forced to retreat and/or die. Definitely possible. > > Maybe by “slaves” he was referring to impressed Americans? > > Do you have some references for these interpretations of Key’s poem? Happy to oblige, terentii. Luckily, the book I read some time back (and subsequently passed on) was on Google Books! Arguments for lyrics targeted slaves: **Alan Taylor** , two-time Pulitzer winner, in [_The Routledge Handbook of the War of 1812_](https://books.google.com/books?id=hjyvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q&f=false): > [@](#): > > Today Americans sing only the first verse, neglecting the rest which includes (in the third verse), Keys’ dig at the British for liberating American slaves to augment their fighting force. **Andrew Cockburn** , “Washington is Burning,” Harpers: > [@](#): > > No refuge could save the hireling and slave > From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave. > > For myself, the words always evoke a glow of family pride, because Key’s malign desire that fleeing slaves should find no refuge was directly inspired by the actions of my distinguished relative Admiral Sir George Cockburn of the Royal Navy. Two hundred years ago this August, he fought his way to the White House at the head of an army partly composed of slaves he had freed, armed, and trained and torched the place, along with the Capitol and much of official Washington. In the course of a two-year campaign, he rescued as many as 6,000 slaves, and despite Key’s hopeful verse, not to mention angry demands from the U.S. government, he sailed them away to freedom. Arguments for Impressment interpretation: **[historama.com](http://www.american-historama.org/1801-1828-evolution/star-spangled-banner-lyrics.htm)** (Geared toward kids; I used to teach): > [@](#): > > ● The Star Spangled Banner lyrics "the hireling " refers to the British use of Mercenaries (German Hessians) in the American War of Independence > ● The Star Spangled Banner lyrics “…and slave” is a direct reference to the British practice of Impressment (kidnapping American seamen and forcing them into service on British man-of war ships). This was a Important cause of the War of 1812 **[Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/2016/08/29/star-spangled-banner-and-slavery/)** (which gives both interpretations): > [@](#): > > In fairness, it has also been argued that Key may have intended the phrase as a reference to the British Navy’s practice of impressment (kidnapping sailors and forcing them to fight in defense of the crown), or as a semi-metaphorical slap at the British invading force as a whole (which included a large number of mercenaries). ---
**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 14, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/115 "2018-01-14T07:54:10Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Happy to oblige, terentii. Thank you. I was not aware of any of these works. I will check them out sometime. Are you in Washington DC, or Washington State? I assume you know the British burned the capital in retaliation for the Americans burning York (present-day Toronto)? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2018, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/116 "2018-01-14T09:24:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Thank you. I was not aware of any of these works. I will check them out sometime. > > Are you in Washington DC, or Washington State? > > I assume you know the British burned the capital in retaliation for the Americans burning York (present-day Toronto)? 😉 I live in Washington state. I did know about the incursions. (Sorry about that, by the way.) A War of Mistakes, both British and American, that could have been resolved diplomatically. ---
**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 14, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/117 "2018-01-14T14:41:12Z")
In final defense of my interpretation, it might be better to say “The war was forced upon us; we had to fight” instead of “The British threatened everyone.” This makes sense to me, given the fourth verse: “O thus be it ever/where free men shall stand/between their loved homes/and the war’s desolation.” But who am I to argue? :o ---
**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 14, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/118 "2018-01-14T14:43:56Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I did know about the incursions. (Sorry about that, by the way.) A War of Mistakes, both British and American, that could have been resolved diplomatically. I told my ex (Russian) about how the Battle of New Orleans was fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed. She said (jokingly) “Yep, no Internet in those days.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Swedish\_Viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9f8e36/32.png) [@The\_Swedish\_Viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swedish_Viking)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-all-the-words-to-the-star-spangled-banner-the-usa-national-anthem/806198/119 "2018-01-15T01:57:18Z")
I’m afraid… not a single word of the anthem, but I really love the Jimi Hendrix instrumental version after I saw him at Woodstock summer 1969. For me, nearly 50 years later, Jimi is still one of the greatest guitarists in the world. I saw him many times here in Sweden because he had a Swedish girlfriend and also a son with this female. [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=5)