Who wrote the american national anthem?
“The Star Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. Key, a 35-year-old amateur poet, wrote “Defence of Fort McHenry”[1] after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a London social club. “The Anacreontic Song” was already popular in the United States and set to various lyrics. Set to Key’s poem and renamed, “The Star Spangled Banner” would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing. Although the song has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today, with the fourth (“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand …”) added on more formal occasions.
