Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
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What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
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Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
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O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
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And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
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Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
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O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
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On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
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Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
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What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
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As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
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Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
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In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
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'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
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That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
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A home and a country should leave us no more?
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Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
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No refuge could save the hireling and slave
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From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
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And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
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Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
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Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
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Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
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Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
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And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
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And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
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O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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The Star Spangled Banner
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Whitney Houston |