1. 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. 2. 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. 3. O beautiful for heroes provedIn 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 ev'ry gain divine. 4. 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.
Lyrics: Katharine Lee Bates
Music: Samuel Augustus Ward
Tune: MATERNA
Meter: C.M.D.
Katharine Lee Bates, 1859–1929
Katherine Bates, who was a teacher and head of the English department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, wrote the original lines of this text in 1893, while teaching summer school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains and Pike’s Peak had especially impressed her.