“America the Beautiful”
was at first a poem
written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893
and published two years later
the poem was put to music in 1910
and the rest is history …
“O beautiful for spacious skies
for amber waves of grain
for purple mountain majesties
above thy 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 thy gold refine
‘til 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 spacious skies
for amber waves of grain
for purple mountain majesties
above thy fruited plain
America, America
God shed His grace on thee
and crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea …”