Verse Four speaks to me today:
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd 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.
Verse one is a question. The most requested song in the U.S., well-known all over the world, hard to sing, harder to sing well,
https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/pdf/ssb_lyrics.pdf
asks "does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Francis Scott Key, captured and held on a British vessel during the War of 1812, wrote about night and smoke obscuring the rebel's stars-and-stripes flag over Fort McHenry. "Did it still fly" was unknown to him.
We rarely sing it as a question. Key's verse two thru four and confirm the flag is flying, so we proudly belt it out verse one, affirming the flag flies where citizens of the United States of America WILL bravely fight for home and freedom.
