Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Burbank
“The Star Spangled Banner” Fourth and Final Verse
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heaven-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!
Words written by Francis Scott Key and music by John Stafford Smith 1814