The Star-Spangled Banner , national anthem of the United States , with music adapted from the anthem of a singing club and words by Francis Scott Key . After a century of general use, the four-stanza song was officially adopted as the national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931.

To Anacreon in Heaven, where he sat in full glee, A few sons of harmony sent a petition, That he their inspirer and patron would be; When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian: Voice, fiddle, and flute, no longer be mute, I’ll lend you my name and inspire you to boot And besides I’ll instruct you like me to intwine The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’s vine.

Long assumed to have originated as a drinking song , the melody was taken from the song “ To Anacreon in Heaven ,” which first surfaced about 1776 as a club anthem of the Anacreontic Society, an amateur mens’ music club in London . Written by British composer John Stafford Smith—whose identity was discovered only in the 1970s by a librarian in the music division of the Library of Congress —the song was sung to signal a transition between the evening’s orchestral music concert and after-dinner participatory singing. Its original lyrics were written in six verses by the Anacreontic Society’s president, Ralph Tomlinson, as an ode to the Greek poet Anacreon , who is asked for and—after some objection by the gods—grants his blessing to mingle Venus ’s myrtle with Bacchus ’s grapevine in their brotherhood:

In 1798 the tune became “Adams and Liberty,” written by Thomas Paine (later called Robert Treat Paine , Jr., and not the same person as the author of Common Sense, with whom he is sometimes confused) to celebrate and rally support for the nation’s second president, John Adams . This version of the song remained popular and well known through the War of 1812 , until Key wrote his new lyrics and appropriated the tune.

Oh, say do you hear, at the dawn’s early light, The shrieks of those bondmen, whose blood is now streaming From the merciless lash, while our banner in sight With its stars, mocking freedom, is fitfully gleaming? Do you see the backs bare? Do you mark every score Of the whip of the driver trace channels of gore? And say, doth our star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

Oh! who has not seen by the dawn’s early light, Some poor bloated drunkard to his home weakly reeling, With blear eyes and red nose most revolting to sight; Yet still in his breast not a throb, of shame feeling! And the plight he was in—steep’d in filth to his chin, Gave proof through the night in the gutter he’d been, While the pity-able wretch would stagger along, To the shame of his friends, ’mid the jeers of the throng.

The melody was used repeatedly throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with lyrics that changed with the affairs of the day. Lyrics set to the tune celebrated national heroes or spoke of political struggles, including temperance (1843; “Oh, Who Has Not Seen”). The first stanza , somewhat humorous, reads as follows:

Francis Scott Key and “The Star-Spangled Banner”

Key, a lawyer, wrote the lyrics on September 14, 1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry, Maryland. Key’s words were first published in a broadside in 1814 under the title “Defence of Fort McHenry.” It was then printed in Baltimore-area newspapers with an indication that the words were to be sung to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The title was changed to “The Star-Spangled Banner” when it appeared in sheet music form later the same year.

Key, Francis Scott Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814). Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 4a31271u)

Key’s song became especially popular and a powerful expression of patriotism during the Civil War, with its emotional description of the enduring national flag, which had become the symbol of the still-new nation. In 1861, devastated by the split of the nation, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a fifth verse to Key’s song. The verse was included in many of the song’s printings throughout the war. The song was recognized in 1889 by the U.S. Navy, who sang it when raising and lowering the flag, and then it was proclaimed in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson to be the national anthem of all the armed forces. However, it did not become the nation’s official anthem until March 3, 1931.

“The Star-Spangled Banner”: official version The official version of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” (arranged 1917), sung by the University of Michigan American Music Institute Chorus, with Scott Van Ornum on piano, conducted by Jerry Blackstone, and produced by musicologist Mark Clague. From Poets & Patriots: A Tuneful History of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Star Spangled Music Foundation, 2014) (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Innumerable publications of the song through the years have shown variations in both words and music. An official arrangement was prepared in 1917 by a committee that included Walter Damrosch and John Philip Sousa for the army and navy. The third stanza is customarily omitted out of courtesy to the British. Key’s original lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” are as follows: