Francis Scott Key was a well know poet mostly recognised for “The Star-Spangled Banner” an extraordinary poem that he wrote in celebration of an American victory and later on this poem became our national anthem. Key was both an author and a lawyer and had many years of education (Mezo). He was inspired by the sight of the flag still sailing in the wind after a british attack on Fort McHenry that he wrote a poem to express his joy and patriotism for his country (Nelson). In his poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” Francis Scott Key wrote about the beautiful sight of victory he witnessed at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, and this poem portrays America's victory through the use of imagery, rhyme scheme, and pathos.
Historical Background/Purpose of Poem …show more content…
Imagery is when words are used to create a picture in the reader's mind and an excellent example would be “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,” these two lines paints a beautiful scene in the reader's head, a scene of triumph and victory (Key and Rothman). The imagery doesn’t end there, Key continues through the entire poem to use imagery to paint these scenes of what he saw and what he was inspired by. Even the first line, which we discussed earlier, used imagery by describing “dawn’s early light” (Key). Another example of the imagery used can be found in the second stanza, "Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,” “it” is referring to the flag and how it’s catching the light of the morning (Key). The amount of imagery used in “The Star-Spangled Banner” is so large that it would be easier to count the lines that don’t use imagery. All the vivid imagery along with the use of pathos, word choice, repetition, and rhyme scheme all work together like the gears of a clock to create a poem, a short four verse poem, that amazingly portrayed what Francis Scott Key witnessed at Fort McHenry and successfully became America's first national anthem (“Maryland” and …show more content…
So why did it take so long to become the anthem? When Key wrote the original tune on September 14th he wanted to share his work with the people at Fort McHenry. Copies of the poem were printed as quickly as possible and it was distributed among the men at the fort (“Maryland”). The men loved this inspirational tune and needless to say it grew in popularity exceptionally fast. When Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” he tried to put it to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven" and because the poem was put to a song, a drinking song in fact, it grew in popularity even faster (“Maryland” and Mezo).
As more and more people learned about “The Star-Spangled Banner” it was actually used by the military as one of their patriotic songs. It was played in the Civil War and World War I. The United States Navy even adopted “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a “de facto anthem” (Rothman). The American military services using the song must have greatly contributed to the song's popularity. Although the song was “popular” amongst most of the American people, it wasn’t loved by all the people
Historical Background/Purpose of Poem …show more content…
Imagery is when words are used to create a picture in the reader's mind and an excellent example would be “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,” these two lines paints a beautiful scene in the reader's head, a scene of triumph and victory (Key and Rothman). The imagery doesn’t end there, Key continues through the entire poem to use imagery to paint these scenes of what he saw and what he was inspired by. Even the first line, which we discussed earlier, used imagery by describing “dawn’s early light” (Key). Another example of the imagery used can be found in the second stanza, "Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,” “it” is referring to the flag and how it’s catching the light of the morning (Key). The amount of imagery used in “The Star-Spangled Banner” is so large that it would be easier to count the lines that don’t use imagery. All the vivid imagery along with the use of pathos, word choice, repetition, and rhyme scheme all work together like the gears of a clock to create a poem, a short four verse poem, that amazingly portrayed what Francis Scott Key witnessed at Fort McHenry and successfully became America's first national anthem (“Maryland” and …show more content…
So why did it take so long to become the anthem? When Key wrote the original tune on September 14th he wanted to share his work with the people at Fort McHenry. Copies of the poem were printed as quickly as possible and it was distributed among the men at the fort (“Maryland”). The men loved this inspirational tune and needless to say it grew in popularity exceptionally fast. When Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” he tried to put it to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven" and because the poem was put to a song, a drinking song in fact, it grew in popularity even faster (“Maryland” and Mezo).
As more and more people learned about “The Star-Spangled Banner” it was actually used by the military as one of their patriotic songs. It was played in the Civil War and World War I. The United States Navy even adopted “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a “de facto anthem” (Rothman). The American military services using the song must have greatly contributed to the song's popularity. Although the song was “popular” amongst most of the American people, it wasn’t loved by all the people