"America the Beautiful"

Katherine Lee Bates and Samuel A. Ward

In honor of the Fourth of July and with a nod to our Word of the Week, “nation,” I decided for today to talk about national anthems for Sometimes a Song. Perhaps Tony will write about the word in more detail one day, but for now we’ll just say that an anthem is a stirring song about a place (or even an idea) that people sing in honor of. Now, I want all of our American readers to take a deep breath. And now exhale! Notice that I let you release that breath, because today’s song is not our OFFICIAL national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” So we don’t have to hit and hold that high note on the word “freeeeeee!” And better than that, I won’t be subjecting you to a murderous rendition of the poor song that captive audiences have to endure at football stadiums or ball parks. Phew!

In many ways we are rich in national anthems in the US, and I am sure that this is true in other nations. And after all, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was only elevated to official status in 1931, and signed into law for that purpose by President Herbert Hoover. Imagine going from The Declaration of Independence in 1776 all the way to 1931 without having an official national anthem! What were were we thinking? Well, during the Civil War — that’s the War Between the States, for our friends south of the Mason-Dixon Line — we had several national anthems. For the North, one such song was the jaunty “Battle-Cry of Freedom” (aka, “We’ll Rally ‘Round the Flag”); and for the South, the official anthem was '“God Save the South,” but for most soldiers it was a lot easier to sing (and whistle) “Dixie,” and so that became the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy.

But yet another anthem came upon the scene for the North, by way of poet Julia Ward Howe, in a hymn/poem she published in The Atlantic Monthly, a piece called “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Mrs. Howe composed her poem because she thought that the Union Soldiers needed a more fitting anthem than their rather scandalous favorite, “John Brown’s Body,” which the Union soldiers had set to an old camp meeting tune. Julia Ward Howe composed her own hymn with that tune in mind. And in fact, it was early in the Civil war when the first committee formed for the purpose of seeing to it that the United States should have an official anthem. In the end, that status went to the song penned by Francis Scott Key when he observed the actual “star-spangled banner” — the flag — still waving over Fort McHenry in 1812, after a night of bombardment by those persistently pesky Red Coats.

So after all of this, you must be wondering which national song I have selected for today. I could have chosen Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” I could also have chosen the anthem which we most regularly sang when I was a small child in school, “America,” or as we called it “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” which we Americans sing to the tune the British use for “God Save the King/Queen.” Or, I could have given you a jolly anthem from the War for Independence, “Yankee Doodle” (the inspiration George Cohan’s Yankee Doodle Dandy) which was a favorite song of school children far into the 20th century. I frankly love all of these songs, for many reasons. But I decided to present for today what may be my favorite of our “other” national anthems in the U. S., “America the Beautiful.”

I’m betting that most of our readers know at least a couple of verses of “America the Beautiful,” which is, after all, a true anthem, not a hymn exactly, but a song of gratitude for a beloved country. And it was on a trip across the American continent that the author of what would become a most beloved national anthem got the idea for the poem. Katherine Lee Bates was a Wellesley College professor who played an important role in including American Literature in the college curriculum. Bates had a remarkable career as a writer and scholar, having studied abroad at Oxford, then returned to Wellesley, where she earned a master’s degree in literature and was subsequently appointed to the faculty.

In the summer of 1893, while teaching at Colorado College, Katherine Bates visited Pike’s Peak with a group of professors. There she viewed the vista which inspired her to write her poem, “America,” about the land, which from that perspective, seemed to stretch “from sea to shining sea.” At about the same time as Bates wrote her poem, an organist in named Samuel Ward was composing a tune, "Materna", as a hymn setting . But it was not until 1910, after Ward’s death, that anyone thought to set Ward’s tune and the poem together as "America the Beautiful." You can read all eight original verses below.

Katherine Bates never took any payment for the use of this lovely anthem, but gave it over for public and private use. What a blessing!

I hope you will enjoy the version of “America the Beautiful” by the Tabernacle Choir, with the always-excellent Philadelphia Orchestra.

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!

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 love
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!

Oh 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!

O beautiful for pilgrim 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 pilgrims foot and knee!

Oh 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 strain
The banner of the free!

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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