Strangers to Us All Lawyers and Poetry

Francis Scott Key

(1779-1843)

Eugene L. Didier, The Golden Days of the Maryland Bar
3 Green Bag 312, at 316 (1891)

"FRANCIS SCOTT KEY was born in Frederick County, Maryland, August 1, 1779. His father, John Ross Key, an officer in the army in the Revolutionary war, was a descendant from some of the earliest settlers of the province.

The son was educated at St. John's College, Annapolis, and, after completing his course, studied law with his uncle, Philip B[arton] Key, at Annapolis, and, in 1801, commenced the practice of the profession at Fredericktown, in his native county. Some years after he removed to Washington [D.C.], where he became District Attorney of the city, and there remained until his death, January 11, 1843.

Mr. Key was the author, in addition to the Star-Spangled Banner, of a few other songs and devotional pieces. His poems were written without any view to publication, on some passing topic for his own and the gratification of his friends. They were noted down on odd scraps of appear, backs of letters, &c., a piece of several verses being often on as many separate slips of paper, and were seldom revised by the author." [Evert A. & George L. Duyckinck, 1 The Cyclopedia of American Literature 692 (Philadelphia: William Rutter & Co., 1880)(2 vols.)]

Key died in 1843. His poetry was collected and edited, after his death by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

                                   The Star-Spangled Banner.
"This Song was written by Francis Scott Key, of Baltimore, September 14, 1814. After burning Washington, the British advance towards Baltimore, and were met by a smaller number of Americans, most of whom were captured and taken to the large fleet, then preparing to attack Fort McHenry. Among the prisoners was a Dr. Beames, an intimate friend of Mr. Key. Hoping to intercede for the doctor's release, Mr. Key, with a flag of truce, started in a sail-boat for the admiral's vessel. Here he was detained in his boat, moored from the stern of the flag-ship, during the terrible bombardment of twenty-five hours, and at last, seeing the "Star-spangled Banner" still waving, he seized an old letter from his pocket, and on a barrel-head, wrote the following stanzas:

                                   I.
Oh! say, can you see by the dawn's early light,
     What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro' the perilous fight,
     O'er the ramparts we watch'd, 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.
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 thro' the mist of the deep,
     Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
Where is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
     As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half disclose?
Now it catches, the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, Oh! long may it wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

[Source: S.B. McCracken (ed.), Michigan and the Centennial; Being a Memorial Record Appropriate to the Centennia Year 48 (Detroit, 1876)]

Song

When the warrior returns from the battle afar,
To the home and the country he nobly defended,
Oh! warm be the welcome to gladden his ear,
And loud be the joy that his perils are ended.
In the full tide o. song let his name roll along,
To the feast flowing board let us gratefully throng,
Where mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.
Columbians! a band of thy brothers behold,
Who claim the reward of thy hearts' warm emotion,
When thy cause, when thine honor urged onward the bold,
In vain frowned the desert, in vain raged the ocean.
To a far distant shore, to the battle's wild roar,
They rushed, thy fair fame and thy rights to secure;
Then mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.
In the conflict resistless each toil they endured,
'Till their foes fled dismayed from the war's desolation;
And pale beamed the crescent, its splendor obscured
By the light of the star-spangled flag of our nation.
Where each radiant star gleamed a meteor of war,
And the turbaned heads bowed to its terrible glare,
Now mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave.

Our fathers who stand on the summit of fame,
Shall exultantly hear of their sons the proud story,
How their young bosoms glowed with the patriot flame,
How they fought, how they fell, in the blaze of their glory.
How triumphant they rode o'er the wondering flood,
And stained the blue waters with Infidel blood;
How mixed with the olive the laurel did wave,
And, formed a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.

Then welcome the warrior returned from afar
To the home and the country he nobly defended,
Let the thanks due to valor now gladden his car,
And loud be the joys that his perils are ended.
In the full tide of song let his fame roll along,
To the feast flowing board let us gratefully throng,
Where mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright, wreath for the brows of the bravo.

[Evert A. & George L. Duyckinck, The Cyclopedia of American Literature 692 (Philadelphia: William Rutter & Co., 1880)(vol. 1)]


Francis Scott Key
Wikipedia

Francis Scott Key
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography
(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889)(James Grant Wilson & John Fiske eds.)(6 vols.)

Francis Scott Key
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography

Francis Scott Key
The Poets and Poetry of America

Francis Scott Key
United State Flag Page

Francis Scott Key
Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed., 2001)

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

Francis Scott Key

The Star-Spangled Banner

Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812

Star-Spangled Banner
Wikipedia

The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner

Poetry

Francis Scott Key, Poems of the Late Francis S. Key, Esq. (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1857)(introductory letter by Chief Justice Taney) [online text]

Writings

Francis Scott Key, The Power of Literature and Its Connexion with Religion (Bristol, Pennsylvania: Bristol College Press, 1834)("an oration, delivered at Bristol College, July 23, 1834, before The Philologian Society")

Bibliography

Edward S. Delaplaine, Francis Scott Key, Life and Times (Brooklyn, New York: Biography Press, 1937)

F. S. Key-Smith, Francis Scott Key, Author of the Star Spangled Banner: What Else He Was and Who (Washington, D.C.: Key-Smith and Company, 1911)

Sam Meyer, Paradoxes of Fame: The Francis Scott Key Story (Annapolis, Maryland: Eastwind Publications, 1995)

Lillie Patterson & Victor Dowd, Francis Scott Key, Poet and Patriot (Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Pub. Co. 1963)

John T. Silkett, Francis Scott Key and the History of the Star Spangled Banner (Washington: Vintage America Publishing Co., 1978)

H. Ray Youngberg, Ancestors & Descendants of Francis Scott Key, Lawyer & Poet (Wilmington, North Carolina: Youngberg, 1998)

Victor Weybright, Spangled Banner: The Story of Francis Scott Key (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935)

Bibliography: Articles

John T. Noonan, Lights of the Law: Madison, Key, Jackson, 69 (4) Anglican and Episcopal History 410-420 (2000)

Sam Meyer, Religion, Patriotism, and Poetry in the Life of Francis Scott Key, 84 (3) Maryland Historical Magazine 267-274 (1989)

Scottie Fitzgerald Smith, The Colonial Ancestors of Francis Scott Key, 76 (4) Maryland Historical Magazine 363-375 (1981)

Frank L. Owsley, Jr., Francis Scott Key's Mission to Alabama in 1833, 23 (3) Alabama Review 181-192 (1970)

Jacob Blanck, The Star Spangled Banner, 60 (2) Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 176-184 (1966)

Eugene L. Didier, Francis Scott Key as a Lawyer, 16 (5) The Green Bag 293 (1904)



Terra Ruba
Birthplace of Francis Scott Key, composer of the National Anthem,
near Taneytown, Maryland, off Route 71

Research

Key, Cutts, and Turner Family Papers
Albert and Shirley Small Speical Collections Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia