| Song 58. "America the Beautiful" |
| Words by Katherine Lee Bates |
| Music by Samuel A. Ward |
| 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 shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea 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 |
| While on a trip to Pike's Peak, in 1893, poetess Katherine Lee Bates was inspired to write these patriotic words. Later she set them to Samuel Ward's song, "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem." |