Did you know that our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” has four stanzas? Neither did I. We went to the Portland Sea Dogs baseball game last night at Hadlock Field. (They’re the AA affiliate of the Red Sox.) It was a classic American moment: baseball, hot dogs, and fireworks. At the start of the game, we had the traditional singing of the national anthem, but this time they said they were singing all four verses. I thought it was particularly poignant and relevant, and is a humble expression of faith in God, praise for what He has given us, and a plea to remain faithful to our ideals and His will, and so I reproduce them for you, in their entirety, here:
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
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.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
