America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful ‘ 1913

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 the country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy 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!

 

 

O beautiful for halcyon skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the enameled plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till souls wax fair as earth and air

And music-hearted sea!

 

 

 

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,

Whose stern impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America ! America !

God shed his grace on thee

Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought

By pilgrim foot and knee!

 

 

 

O beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife

When once and twice, for man’s avail

Men lavished precious life !

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

Till selfish gain no longer stain

The banner of the free!

 

 

 

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

Till nobler men keep once again

Thy whiter jubilee!

Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)

Katharine Lee Bates was born on August 12, 1859 in Falmouth, Massachusetts to William and Cornelia Frances Lee Bates. Her father was a pastor at the First Congregational Church. “Katie” was the fifth child of the Bates family. Katharine Lee Bates received a bachelor of arts degree in 1880 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She returned to the school in 1886 to join the faculty and served as the chair of the English department. On July 22, 1893, Bates climbed 14,000 feet to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado, and found the inspiration for her poem “America The Beautiful.”


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