USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -We sing only the first stanza of Key’s song, but the Star-Spangled Banner actually has four verses. Only the first stanza ends with a question mark. You can read the other four stanzas, which include plenty of exclamation marks but no question marks.

Detailed explanation-2: -You asked, we answered: Why is there a question mark at the end of the National Anthem? The short answer: because Francis Scott Key wrote it that way.

Detailed explanation-3: -Key penned the first stanza of his poem, ending with the famous line: O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? It was a real question, not a rhetorical one. It was directed toward his fellow Marylanders who watched in suspense along with him.

Detailed explanation-4: -On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort M’Henry, ” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812.