![]() Some might say she would hardly recognize her Beautiful America today. Many things have changed since Katharine Bates first penned these lyrics. ![]() O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears.Īmerica! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea. ![]() 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! America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine. There are still many active petitions today. Many disagreed and have lobbied down through the years for it to be changed to America the Beautiful. But President Herbert Hoover signed a law giving the right to bear the national anthem to The Star Spangled Banner. Interestingly, Ward’s family never obtained any royalties for the song and Bates received $5 when the poem was first published and then gave up all royalties to the title.Īlong with My Country ‘Tis of Thee and The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful was considered for the national anthem. Ward died one year before the song was published as America the Beautiful. ![]() It was said there were as many as 74 different melodies tried out on the poem before deciding on the one we hold so dear. It was sung for many years to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. It was titled Materna and was first published in 1910. The original melody was written in 1882 by Samuel Augustus Ward, a composer and organist. It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” We were hoping for half an hour on the summit, but two of our party became so faint in the rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons again and started on our downward plunge so speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze. Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules. There is a plaque there today and the story is best told by Katharine herself: “We strangers celebrated the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak, making the ascent by the only method then available for people not vigorous enough to achieve the climb on foot nor adventurous enough for burro-riding. She made a trip to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, which was her inspiration for the lyrics to America the Beautiful. It was originally published in the July 4 th edition of The Congregationalist, 1895.īates was a teacher and professor of English at Wellesley College, poet and author of books such as America the Beautiful and Other Poems, which was published in 1911. The words of this song came from a poem of the same title by Bates. ![]() Katharine Lee Bates (1859 -1929), wrote the original poem in 1893 and revised it twice in 19. Do you know the story behind this Independence Day song? Horatio Parker, one of the greatest of contemporary American composers, wrote the music, “America the Beautiful,” to which this hymn is set though it is frequently sung, and most effectively, to the tune “Materna”.When we hear that first line of one of our most beloved national hymns, the emotions of Love for Country stir within us. These lines were set ringing in her heart, and into a noble poem she has woven the beauties of that mountain-top vision:Įach verse is crowned with a prayer that to the physical beauty of her native land God may add the highest moral beauty: The patriotic impressions made upon her mind by the wonderful White City she bore westward with her as she journeyed to Colorado.Īnd when at last she stood on the summit of Pike’s Peak and beheld the far-spreading panorama below and the spacious skies above, her soul was stirred by the thought of the greatness and the God-given destiny of America. She wrote it in 1893 while on a Western tour that brought her first to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Miss KATHARINE LEE BATES, professor of English Literature in Wellesley College, is the author of this hymn, O Beautiful for Spacious Skies. In The Garden / I Come to the Garden Alone Hymn The History of O Beautiful for Spacious Skies Hymn Win Them One by One Hymn Story and Lyrics America! America! May God thy gold refine,Īmerica! America! God mend thine every flaw,īelow are more posts on hymns and their lyrics: ![]()
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