O, say can you see
Through this haze of deceit
The roaring crowd
Leaps to their feet
The illusion complete
Walk in your sleep
Through nightmares unseen
Lost in American dreams

O'er the ramparts we watched
As what we fought for was lost
When victory means the same as defeat
It comes at too high a cost
For words, our deaths come cheaply bought
But in flesh and blood they are wrought
At the twilight's last gleaming

Shadows fall over the sleeping
Who lie content in believing their dreaming
Until they wake up screaming
At the twilight's last gleaming

Shadows fall over the sleeping
Who lie content in believing their dreaming
Until they wake up screaming
At the twilight's last gleaming

O, say can you see
That you live on your knees
Blindly led, through life and to death
For a nominal fee

I'll live my life like a wolf among sheep
But I will die on my feet