AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL (1895)

            Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)

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!