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Francis Scott Key (1 August 1779 – 11 January 1843 / Carroll County, Maryland)
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Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Life
Francis Scott Key was born to Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy (Charlton) and Captain John Ross Key at the family plantation Terra Rubra in what was Frederick County and is now Carroll County, Maryland. His father John Ross Key was a lawyer, a judge and an officer in the Continental Army. His great-grandparents were Philip Key and Susanna Barton Gardiner, both born in London, England, immigrated to Maryland in 1726.
He studied law at St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland and also ... more »
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Quotations
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O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), U.S. poet. The Star-spangled Banner (l. 1-8). . . World's Best Loved Poems, The. James Gilchrist Lawson, comp. (192...
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the...
Comments about Francis Scott Key
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I had never noticed how actually interesting - and beautiful - this poem was until I read it like this - as a normal poem, without the tune US national anthem. (Not that I dislike the tune) If you never really noticed this poem before (even if you sang or heard it a thousand times) try to forget the tune and rythm and read it to your self as close to prose as possible, you might have a pleasant surprise - as I did.