America The Beautiful
O beautiful for spacious
skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountains majesty
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 the 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 patriots' 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!
O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountains majesty
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 pilgrims feet,
Whose stem 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 and 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 patriots' 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!
Katharine Lee Bates
Midi: America the Beautiful
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