Youth Activity Archive

A patriotic song celebrating the natural beauty of the land and the hope for national unity.

Lyrics by: Katharine Lee Bates
Melody by: Samuel Ward

Printable Sheet Music

• America the Beautiful Materna

Recordings

• YouTube – Ian Berwick
• YouTube – Kiboomers
• YouTube – Ray Charles

Lyrics

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!

History

The words to “America the Beautiful” were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859–1929), an English professor at Wellesley College. In the summer of 1893, Bates traveled to Colorado Springs to teach at Colorado College. Her journey across the United States provided the specific imagery found in the poem.

The very first musical setting composed for the poem was an original accompaniment by Silas G. Pratt in 1895. For many years, “America the Beautiful” was most commonly sung to the folktune of “Auld Lang Syne.” The melody, titled “Materna,” was composed in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward (1848–1903), a church organist and choirmaster at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey.

Ward did not write the music for Bates’ poem. The two never met. Ward originally composed the tune for an old hymn titled “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.” He was reportedly inspired to write the melody while on a ferry ride home from Coney Island, jotting the notes down on his shirt cuff because he lacked paper. The tune was first published in 1892. It wasn’t until around 1904 that people began pairing Bates’ lyrics with Ward’s “Materna.” Samuel Ward died in 1903, never knowing that his hymn tune would become the definitive melody for one of the nation’s most famous patriotic songs.

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