America the Beautiful

The words of this beautifully patriotic anthem were written by Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, in 1893, with the second and third verses added by Ms. Bates in 1904 and 1913.  The poem was put to a tune composed in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward to make the hymn we still sing over a century later to celebrate the pride and beauty of the United States of America.

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 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
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

For more information, or to hear the melody of this and other patriotic songs, go to the NIEHS Kids’ Page.