Poem of the Week for Thanksgiving
November 24, 2003
In the second stanza, the troubling stanza, Bates speaks of our potential "flaws," urges our pursuit of "self-control," and reminds us of our need for "liberty in law."
One summer day in 1893, Katharine Lee Bates, a visiting Easterner and a prolific poet, stood atop Pikes Peak and was astounded and inspired by the view. She put her feelings into words.
America the Beautiful is her one enduring poem.
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
Poems, New York, 1911.