Lyrics

O say can you see, by the mob’s bitter light,
What so proudly they hailed as they stormed through the night?
At the Capitol’s walls, where the windows were torn,
And the banner of one over freedom was worn.
And the justices stare, from their cushioned high chairs,
While the senators bow, trading oaths for their shares.
O say, does that scar-mangled banner still wave,
O’er a land bought and hollowed, not free, not brave?
On the plains once kept free, now the drill rigs arise,
While our classrooms grow dim and the scholars despised.
The old civil hands have been pushed out the door,
Replaced by the faithless who fumble the chore.
And the cry, “It was rigged!” with no proof ever found,
Still poisons the ballot and darkens the ground.
O say, does that scar-mangled banner still wave,
O’er a land where our freedoms sink deep in the grave?