How many verses are there in what we know today as The Star-Spangled Banner?
There are three in the above sheet music but there are actually four verses. The lyrics are from the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” written by Francis Scott Key in 1814.
Francis Scott Key was a lawyer and gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.
Information can be found on the Smithsonian web site click HERE.
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