hireling

We always hear the first stanza, but in the third stanza there's a line that goes, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave."

But after her hireling turned protege persuaded Deborah to revamp her act by making it more personal and intimate, the comedy veteran decided she needed to take her new show on the road.

According to Stevenson University, a debate has raged about the meaning of the line "hireling and slave" and whether it flatly has racist tones or a "rhetorical tool."

“No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”

It pointed to the third verse of Francis Scott Key’s poem, which includes the line: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”