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04/24/2013 |
America the Beautiful
Katherine Lee Bates
The words to America the
Beautiful are by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), an English
professor at Wellesley College. In 1893, Bates had taken a train
trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a short summer
school session at Colorado College, and several of the sights on
her trip found their way into her poem.
On that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her,
and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the
original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two
years later in The Congregationalist, to commemorate the
Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. Amended
versions were published in 1904 and 1913.
Several existing pieces of
music were adapted to the poem. The tune was composed by Samuel
A. Ward was generally considered the best music as early as 1910
and is still the popular tune today. Ward had been similarly
inspired. The tune came to him while he was on a ferryboat trip
from Coney Island back to his home in New York City after a
leisurely summer day, and he immediately wrote the hymn "Materna"
(1882). Ward died in 1903, not knowing the
national stature his music would attain. Miss Bates was more
fortunate, as the song's popularity was well-established by her
death in 1929.
At various times in
the more than 100 years that have elapsed since the song as we
know it was born, particularly during the John F. Kennedy
administration, there have been efforts to give "America the
Beautiful" legal status either as a national hymn, or as a
national anthem equal to, or in place of, "The Star-Spangled
Banner", but so far this has not succeeded. Proponents prefer
"America the Beautiful" for various reasons, saying it is easier
to sing, more melodic, and more adaptable to new orchestrations
while still remaining as easily recognizable as "The
Star-Spangled Banner." Some prefer "America the Beautiful" over
"The Star-Spangled Banner" due to the latter's war-oriented
imagery. |
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Lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates
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 impassion'd stress
A thorough-fare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law. |
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country lov'd
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry 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. |
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