at half mast during the
morning, and is raised at noon to full mast for the rest of the day.

Patriotic Songs for Girl Scouts

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

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 rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
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 that 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!

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heav'n-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_, 1814.

_The Star Spangled Banner_ was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key at
the time of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, by the
British. Key had been sent to the British squadron to negotiate the
release of an American prisoner-of-war, and was detained there by the
British during the engagement for fear he might reveal their plans. The
bombardment lasted all through the night. In his joy the following
morning at seeing the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry, Key
wrote the first stanza of the _Star Spangled Banner_ on the back of an
old letter, which he drew from his pocket. He finished the poem later in
the day after he had been allowed to land. The poem was first printed as
a handbill enclosed in a fancy border; but one of Key's friends, Judge
Nicholson, of Baltimore, saw that the tune of _Anacreon in Heaven_, an
old English