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“America the Beautiful” (SOLD) |
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“Oh beautiful for spacious skies,/ For amber waves of grain,/ For purple mountain majesties/ Above the Fruited plain!”
KATHARINE LEE BATES.
Autograph Manuscript Signed. Ca. 1911 -1929. 1 p. On the verso of Wellesley College, Department of English stationery.
Inventory #24419
SOLD — please inquire about other items
Complete Transcript
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 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!
Katharine Lee Bates
Historical Background
Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), an English professor at Wellesley, spent the summer of 1893 lecturing at Colorado College. Bates was among a group of visiting faculty (including her lover Katharine Coman) that decided to “celebrate the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak.” They made the ascent by prairie wagon. At the top, Bates later wrote, she so moved by the breathtakingly beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery, with its “sea-like expanse of fertile country . . . under those ample skies,” and “the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” She composed the stanzas in her notebook on the trip back.
In addition to her view from Pike’s Peak, Bates included other sights she encountered during her train trip to Colorado. The wheat fields of Kansas are found in the first verse, and Bates commemorated her visit to the “White City” of the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago—the “alabaster cities” of the fourth verse.
In 1895, her hymn was first published in “The Congregationalist” and almost immediately set to music—first to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” Eventually it was set to the tune of Samuel A. Ward’s “Materna.” As early as 1926, America the Beautiful was proposed as the national anthem. The older Star-Spangled Banner won out – so far!
Bates revised the poem in 1904 “to make the ‘phraseology more simple and direct’ for composers to set the lyrics to music.” (http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/timeline/C194) She made minor changes again in 1911 when it was published in her book, America the Beautiful and Other Poems. This is the final version.
Bates penned very few longhand copies, and even had a printed version created to distribute in response to requests. For a history of Bates and this national treasure, see Lynn Sherr’s book, America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation’s Favorite Song (2001).
The three versions appear side-by-side below. The original version, published on July 4, 1895, in The Congregationalist is the greatest departure from the final version. For example, our skies were originally “halcyon” rather than “spacious,” and each verse ended with a different couplet.
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Original poem (1893) |
1904 version
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1911 version |
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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!
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 pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife,
When once or 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!
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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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 ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for glorious tale
Of liberating strife,
When valiantly for man's avail
Men lavish precious life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry 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.
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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!
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!
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