About the
Song
The Inspiration
The song of our nation was penned by Washington attorney Francis Scott Key at a dramatic moment during the War of 1812. On the night of September 13, 1814, Key watched as our country was attacked by the British navy at Fort McHenry. After watching the rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air throughout the night, dawn broke. Key was expecting to find Baltimore firmly under British control, but was stunned to see a battered but still flying American flag waving in the sunrise. So inspired was Key that he wrote the poem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Set to a tune attributed to John Stafford Smith, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” it became America's national anthem in 1931.
Note: Early manuscripts of the lyrics have many inconsistencies with punctuation and even spelling. The lyrics reproduced on this site use punctuation and spelling found in very early versions. As for whether to use a hyphen in the title or not, most sheet music you see will have “The Star Spangled Banner” as the title. However, in recent years, “The Star-Spangled Banner” has become the preferred spelling for usage within text. Therefore, when printing the lyrics, we use “The Star Spangled Banner”, but when writing about the anthem, we use “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
