America the Beautiful
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for Pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self control
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God they gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
by Katherine Lee Bates, inspired by the view from the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Listen to America, The Beautiful, sung by Cedarmont Kids
About America the Beautiful
In the summer of 1893, poet Katharine Lee Bates was teaching English at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Later she remembered:
“One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”
On the pinnacle of the mountain a poem started to come to her, and she wrote the words down upon returning to her hotel room. The poem was first published with the name Pikes Peak in the Independence Day edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. Over the years, several existing pieces of music were adapted to the poem. A hymn tune composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward in 1882 was first published with Bates’ poem in 1910 as America the Beautiful.
Source: www.balladofamerica.com
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