our national anthem

     Our national anthem, the "Star Spangled Banner", is nearly 200 years old. To many people, the words of our anthem make a stirring and wonderful picture. Unfortunately, the meaning of the words is also lost on many people. So here is an attempt to tell them what the rest of us hear--

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

The sun is coming up, and it is getting light out. Can you see if the American flag is still flying over Fort McHenry? We were so pleased, while a prisoner on this enemy ship, to see that it was still waving when the sun went down last night. If we don't see the flag, we'll know that we have lost the battle, and perhaps the war, and will no longer be an independent nation. Personally, if we lose, I will remain a prisoner, perhaps accused of treason, and even executed.

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there

Over the walls of Fort Mc Henry ( in Maryland ), we could see the red and white stripes, and the blue field with white stars, that make up our flag.  Even though it was dark, every time a bomb went off, we could see the American flag waving by the red light of the explosion.

Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

Is the flag we fought for years ago still there? Or did we fight a war to make our own country, a country where we vote for our leaders, just to lose it now?

Francis Scott Key wrote those words while a prisoner on a British ship. He was actually able to watch the battle from the ship. This was during the War of 1812, less than thirty years after the end of the American Revolution.. America  fought the British from 1775 to 1783, and won. That was the beginning of the United States. By 1812, the British had been refusing to acknowledge that America was a separate country. Ships of the British navy stopped at American ports and "impressed" Americans into the service of the British crown. They woke up out at sea on a ship, and were told that they were in the navy.  Much of the war was fought with ships, including the bombardment ( bombing ) of Fort McHenry, in Maryland. The British burned down the White House in Washington, D.C. The war ended in 1814, and the Americans won and remained a nation--but it was more than a hundred years before America ever allied itself with England.