Reflection on the 'Star Spangled Banner' and its unsung versus

This weekend we’ll no doubt enjoy the familiar tune and lyrics of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Beyond the nostalgia, we may not reflect on the history of the piece or its additional unsung verses.
It’s storied that the author was a pro-slavery lawyer and the melody was borrowed from a British song about drinking and sex. Yet, the song has lifted our nation’s spirits through war and peace in a way that the stars and stripes have done for generations.
In observance of our July 4 Independence Day holiday, the Star Herald devotes this space to the lyrics of the song, based on a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814.
 
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 thru 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 thru 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, 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! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
 
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out of of their foul footsteps' pollution
No refuge could save the hireling and slave'
From the terror of flight 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 home and the war's desolation!
Blest 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.
 
The poem, originally titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. At dawn, Francis Scott Key was able to see the U.S. flag waving over the fort, as he noted in his opening lines. It was later set to music, and in 1931 became the national anthem of the United States.