America, the Beautiful
america_the_beautiful_melody.pdf | |
File Size: | 38 kb |
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America, the Beautiful is one of the best known patriotic songs in our country. The words were written by Katharine Lee Bates after her trip up Pike's Peak (view from the top at left) in 1893. She was so inspired by what she saw that she jotted the words down in a notebook. The poem was published in 1895, and in 1910 it was published as a song set to a melody written by Samuel A. Ward.
Katharine Lee Bates was actually born close by in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She then lived in Wellesley and taught high school and college classes. The words are below--the third graders have learned the first two verses. http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/patriotic/americamp3.htm |
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 of 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 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! |