Francis Scott Key Accomplishments

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Being a poet and enjoying poetry very much I thought this was a wonderful story to share. A lot of songs begin as poems which are later chosen to be set to music. On September 13, 1814 a man named Francis Scott Key wrote a poem about the U.S. flag. Later on in 1931 the poem was set to music and it became the national anthem of the U.S. “The Star Spangled Banner”. The poem was originally “The Defense of Fort McHenry” and it was written because Key was the witness to the bombing of this Maryland fort by the British in the War of 1812. The poet’s inspiration came from seeing a single U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at the break of day. This sight was made realistic with the words, “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there”.

On August 1, 1779 Francis Scott Key came into this world at his family’s estate Terra Rubra …show more content…
After an entire day the British realized that they weren’t able to destroy the fort and finally gave up trying. It was at this time that Key was relieved to see the U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry and so a poem was born from the inspiration as a tribute to the stars and stripes. The poem was published in newspapers and when it was set to music it was to a popular English drinking song titled “To Anacreon in Heaven” by composer John Stafford Smith. Soon people started calling this song “The Star Spangled Banner”. Then in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson announced that this song should be played at all official events. Finally on March 3, 1931 it was adopted as the national anthem. Key died of pleurisy on January 11, 1843 but I’d like to think he knew and was proud when his poem became the national anthem of the country he loved. As for the flag that inspired it all at Fort McHenry it was placed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History in Washington,
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