What is that which the breeze, o’er the [towering steep],
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;
’Tis the Star-Spangled Banner; O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where are the foes who so [vauntingly swore]
That the havoc of war, and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their [foul footsteps’ pollution].