Hymn & History
Eccllesiastes 3:11
“America the Beautiful”
By Katharine Lee Bates, 1893
Posted on Youtube by Gaither Music TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3SPjk1ktRQ
Purpose of
Hymnal Journaling
Reflect on the weekly hymns as you color/doodle and sing along. Use a hymnal of your own, order one at the bottom of this page, or print out sheet music from the internet.
Directions for
Hymnal Journaling
2. Read History
3. Color/Doodle Hymn
4. Share photo in comments OR
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Member Submitted Pages for This Hymn
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Hymn Lyrics
THE LYRICS ~ “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 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 mend thine every flaw,
confirm thy soul in self-control,
thy liberty in law.
The Author of the Hymn
THE AUTHOR ~ Katharine Lee Bates
Born August 12, 1859 in Flamoth, Mass
Died March 28, 1929 in Wellesley, Massachusetts
Katharine’s father was a pastor in the Congregational Church; he died when she was an infant. Her mother moved the family to Wellesley. She received a B.A. (1880) and M.A. (1891) from Wellesley College. She taught high school from 1880-1885 and then was a professor of English literature at Wellesley. She wrote poetry, children’s stories, textbooks and travel books. In the summer if 1893 when she was lecturing at Colorado College she went to the top of Pike’s Peak. Inspired by the beauty of the view she wrote all four verses of “America the Beautiful” which was an instant hit when it was published.
History of Hymn
THE HISTORY ~ “America the Beautiful”
This is a patriotic song.
Bates, an English professor had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a short summer school session. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the “White City” with its promise of the future contained within its gleaming white buildings; the wheat fields of America’s heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Pikes Peak.
On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel.
Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, “Pikes Peak“, first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. At that time, the poem was titled “America” for publication.
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