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America the
Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates |
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14110 foot summit of America's Mountain |
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Katharine
Lee Bates: "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." |
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the summit of Pikes Peak, Katharine Lee Bates
was inspired to pen the lines to her most famous poem, "America the
Beautiful." She was overwhelmed
by the sights of vast, open skies, planted fields,
and the majestic Rocky Mountains. |
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Pikes Pike is located 70 miles south of Mile Chai City of Denver in Colorado Springs |
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Visible weather permitting
not visible at NIGHT |
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America the Beautiful -
1913 |
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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!
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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! |
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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! |
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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! |
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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! |
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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! |
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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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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! |
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 Katharine
Lee Bates, (August 12, 1859 - March 26, 1929), is remembered as
the author of the words to the anthem America the Beautiful.
Died in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on March 26, 1929.
Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The daughter of a
Congregational pastor, she graduated from Wellesley College in
1880 and for many years was a professor of English literature at
Wellesley.
The first draft of America the Beautiful was hastily jotted in a
notebook during the summer of 1893, which Miss Bates spent
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."
The words to her one famous poem first appeared in print in The
Congregationalist, a weekly journal, for Independence Day, 1895.
The poem reached a wider audience when her revised version was
printed in the Boston Evening Transcript, November 19, 1904. Her
final expanded version was written in 1913.
The hymn has been sung to other music, but the familiar tune
that Ray Charles delivered is by Samuel A. Ward (1847-1903),
written for his hymn Materna (1882).
Miss Bates was a prolific author of many volumes of poetry,
travel books and children's books. Her family home on Falmouth's
Main Street is preserved by the Falmouth Historical Society. |
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