# The Star-Spangled Banner

"**Vexillum Stellis Punctatum**" (Anglice: *The Star-Spangled Banner*) est carmen publicum Civitatum Foederatarum Americae e die 3 Martii anno 1931. Anno 1814, Franciscus Scotus Key, advocatus et versificator triginta quinque annorum, cum in *Britannica,* navi bellica, in Sinu Chesapeaco coercitus oppugnationem contra McHenry Praesidium Baltimorae observasset, poema pepigit. Cantus autem est "Anacreonti in Caelis," vulgare carmen Britannicum, a Ioanne Stafford Smith Londinii circa 1765 compositum. Carmen publicum in quattuor strophis rite consistit, sed solum prima stropha usitate cantatur.

## Verba carminis

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| **I.**
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.
**Chorus**
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
**II.**
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.
**Chorus**
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
**III.**
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 their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave.
**Chorus**
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
**IV.**
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Bles't 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."
**Chorus**
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

  | **I.**
Potestne cerni primo diluculo
Vexillum quod vesperi salutabamus,
Dum stellas clavosque et in proelio
Fluitantes superbe in vallo spectamus?
Atque salvum adhuc interdum subitae
Vexillum noctu ostendebant flammae;
**Chorus**
O dic num despectet stellans vexillum
Liberam patriam fortiumque domum.
**II.**
Per vapores maris unde instant hostes
In litore iam aliquid vix apparet,
Quod aura inconstans per celsas turres
Modo condit umbra, modo languide movet;
Ecce tandem primi solis sub lumina
Claro splendet colore vexilli aqua;
**Chorus**
Atque diu despectet stellans vexillum
Liberam patriam fortiumque domum.
**III.**
Ubi nunc isti sunt tam superbo voto
furiali pugna territos et clamore
esse nos cum terra carituros domo?
caligata lues expurgatast cruore!
mercennarius et servus effugiet
acherunta frustra nec servabit semet
**Chorus**
et vexillum stellatum vibrat in triumpho
libera in patria et in forti domo.
**IV.**
O semper sic fiat cum suas domos
Ab exitio populus liber defendet;
Quodque numen tuetur aras et focos
Divinitus victrix res publica laudet.
Superant semper iustam qui causam habent
Et in Deo spem ponere omnem solent;
**Chorus**
Sic triumphans despectet stellans vexillum'
Liberam patriam fortiumque domum.  |

## Bibliographia

* Robertson, J. C. 1937. *Latin Songs New and Old, selected or written by J. C. Robertson.* Editio amplificata et retractata. Toronti: University of Toronto Press.

## Media

(1940)
(1944)
## Notae