“The Star-Spangled Banner”

ON LONGFELLOW S BRIDGE AT MIDNIGHT. 583

The moon and its broken reflection, And its shadows shall appear As the symbol of love in heaven And its broken image here."

And so we left the beautiful Charles River, with its poetic associations, and returned to the prosy routine of every-day life. But Longfellow's bridge at midnight will always have a prominent and pleasant place in our memory.

" THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER."

"The Star-Spangled Banner," by Francis Scott Key, written September 14th, 1814, was inspired while witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry. These words were not the offspring of poetic fancy or imagination, but what the writer actually saw and felt. Every word undoubtedly came from his heart. Key had left Baltimore under a flag of truce to release a friend of his who was a prisoner on a British vessel. They would not permit him to return that day or the following night, fearing that he would tell of their intended attack; hence he watched the flag the whole day with an anxiety better imagined than described. All night he watched the bombshells, and at early dawn his eye was greeted by the proud waving flag. That night, while pacing the deck, the song materialized in his mind and he scratched it on the back of a letter. The next morning he was permitted to land; he read the words to the chief justice of Maryland for approval, who at once gave it his

seal. In less than an hour it was in the hands of the printer and was received and hailed with great enthusiasm. It was carried to thousands

of firesides as the most precious relic of the war of 1812. The tune is an old English air, that of "Anaceron in Heaven."