Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there! Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 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 on the stream; 'Tis the star-spangled banner! oh, 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 No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of death and the gloom of the grave; And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation; Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! -FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. THE FLAG GOES BY Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky; The flag is passing by. Blue and crimson and white it shines, The colors before us fly; But more than the flag is passing by. Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, Cheers of victory on dying lips; Days of plenty and days of peace, March of a strong land's swift increase: Equal justice, right, and law, Stately honor and reverend awe; Sign of a nation, great and strong, To ward her people from foreign wrong; Live in the colors to stand or fall. Hats off! Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, Hats off! The flag is passing by. -HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT. BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. CHORUS Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of an hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar 'mid the evening dews and damps, I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. CHORUS Glory! Glory! etc. His day is marching on. I have read His fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: "As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal." Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel; Since God is marching on. CHORUS He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call re treat, He is searching out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; Oh, be swift my soul to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet; Our God is marching on. CHORUS In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. CHORUS JULIA WARD HOWE. STAND BY THE FLAG! Stand by the Flag! Its stars, like meteors gleaming, Stand by the Flag! Its stripes have streamed in glory, And spread in rhythmic lines the sacred story Stand by the Flag! On land and ocean billow With their last blessing, passed it on to you. Stand by the Flag! Immortal heroes bore it fense; And their imperial Shades still hover o'er it, A guard celestial from Omnipotence. -JOHN NICHOLS WILDER. SONG OF THE BATTLE-FLAG "Star-spangled battle-flag, tattered and torn, With standard all shattered, and bloodstained, and worn, Say, where wert thou born, and where hast thou been, Since waking to life midst the children of men?” |