Thy stars have lit the [welkin dome],
And all thy hues were born in heaven.
Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet,
And Freedom’s banner streaming o’er us?
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
Biography. Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820), whose name is inseparably associated with that of his friend, Fitz-Greene Halleck, was an American poet. These two able poets together contributed a series of forty poems to the New York Evening Post. Among these was “The American Flag,” the last four lines of which were written by Halleck, to replace those written by Drake:
“As fixed as yonder orb divine,
That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled,