Thanks. When Frances Scott Keyes wrote the lyrics it was a poem IN DEFENSE OF FORT MC HENRY and was published in the local paper. It didn’t take long for the guys at the local watering hole to realize that the words fit a popular bar song TO ANACHRION (sp) IN HEAVEN (About a local whore who got into heaven by mistake) It’s difficult to find accurate words of the last song...most have been “cleaned up”...But years ago I ran across them...Quite descriptive.
There are four stanza...although most books only contain three (IF you can find them)
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation, Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n - rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just, And this be our motto--"In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The Smithsonian says the melody is not from a bar song. I had some correspondence with them about it on another Internet site.
That would be Francis Scott Key, good FRiends.