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 thru 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?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

everything hinges on

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

That's defiance.  No matter what happens, no matter how horrible, even the horror only serves to illuminate why you're there in the first place and what you're fighting for.

That the 'flag was still there' is awesome.  Nothing could touch it.  Even as you lay dying, you could still look up and see that maybe everything will be alright after all, even though you're gone.  You aren't dying for no reason.

That's what I take from it.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

This is just hope.  Like rechecking your numbers the second or third or fiftieth time because you can't really believe that you just won the lottery, but there it is and you want it to be so.. but you want it to be confirmed.

To me.