Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we for get- lest we

a

2 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, half conceals, half 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!

30 thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry 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, 1814: three (out of four) verses from the author's MS, now at Baltimore

are stored;

He

is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath

He hath loosed the fate ful light ning of His ter ri ble swift sword:

2 I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

Glory! glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

3 I have read a 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."

Glory! glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

4 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

Glory! glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

5 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.

Glory! glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, 1861