How many Americans actually know all the words to the national anthem?

Question

iv always muderd that song i had no ideas what half the word where or even ment untill now

Answer 1

i've known every word since kindergarden cuz i heard it so much

Answer 2

I do. ( I also know all the words to the French national anthem. LOL )  But then. . . I was raised with respect for this country and the privileges that come with living in it, unlike a lot of people today.

Do you know when and where it was written and why?  Interesting story. ;)

At times in the past, proposals have popped up for other songs to be the national anthem - mostly because it's hard to sing.  (Songs like Oh Beautiful! and God Bless America) but this one has stood the test of time.  Maybe because if you really look at the words, it is so moving.

Imagine a young soldier standing aboard a ship as a prisoner, waiting as British ships attack an American fort on the shore - a few hundred years ago - watching the flag as the evening fades into night, flying above the walls of the fort.   And as night falls the cannon fire begins - and all through the awful night, hearing American men die, and seeing the smoke and fire from the fighting, he sees flashes from the cannons and gunfire that illuminate just for a few seconds that flag, tattered and still flying over the fort. . . a sign that there has been no surrender.  But he is saying something more. . .that the principles that flag stands for - freedom and courage - are still alive. The dream of a free and independent people and country is still alive. . . and so  as the sun begins to rise he searches for a final sight of the flag. . . .

Oh Say!  Can you see by the dawn's early light -

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched,

Were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air

Gave PROOF through the night

That our flag. . .was still there!

Oh, Say!  Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

O'er the Land of the Free

And the Home of the Brave?!

(Francis Scott Key - he was 35 years old, and living in a time when he understood what a gift American independence and freedom was, and how many died and fought for it.  It was a time where you had to pick a side, make a choice, and sometimes die for a principle.

Although the tattered flag had been lowered in the night, when dawn came a large one was raised in its place, signaling the fort had not fallen.  That flag is still in the Smithsonian Museum.   It was by the way the War of 1812, and the fort was McHenry.)

Answer 3

Most people don't know all the words, many just know the first verse.  I'd have to look it up to find the words to the other three verses.

Answer 4

i'd guess 30%.  25 of that 30% are over 50 years old.

Answer 5

i wouldn't know off hand how many americans know all the words.

but do bet MOST do not know their anthem is the same tune

( different lyrics, obviously ) as a Victorian Drinking Song.

Answer 6

I think people know it but they get stuck on a single word and then forget the rest.

Answer 7

a lot of the people that are asked to sing it at sporting events don’t even know the words

Answer 8

It doesn't matter; it doesn't have much meaning anymore. Americans are losing their liberties; getting their naked bodies scanned into computers at airports, and their private telephone conversations listened to...