The second verse was always my favorite.
Mine also. The first verse is a question. “Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
The second verse says what is required for the answer to be “Yes”.
Our National Anthem is a perpetual question, just as the continued existence of this land of the free is a perpetual question, dependent entirely upon the vigilance and will of the people who guard (or don’t guard) it.
If we sing the National Anthem and forget that the question is perpetual, it won’t be long before the answer is “no”.
He sang the FOURTH verse.