O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) American writer and poet
Poem (1893), “America,” st. 1, The Congregationalist, Vol. 80, No. 27 (1895-07-04)
(Source)
Bates wrote the poem "America" after a trip across the US to teach at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, her inspiration prompted by the view from atop Pikes Peak (elevation 14,115 ft / 4,302 m; her original title for the poem was "Pikes Peak").
The above is the original version of the first stanza of the poem. Bates revised that text by 1904 to the more familiar:O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
The poem was combined in 1910 by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward with his 1882 tune "Materna" (originally written for the 17th Century hymn "O Mother dear, Jerusalem"), under the title "America the Beautiful."
For more information on the history of this poem and song, see America the Beautiful - Wikipedia.
Quotations about:
hymn
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Grant us Thy truth to make us free,
And kindling hearts that burn for Thee,
Till all Thy living altars claim
One holy light, one heav’nly flame.Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1848), “A Sun-Day Hymn,” st. 5
(Source)
Best remembered today as a hymn, usually set to Virgil C. Taylor's "Louvan" (1850) or other tunes. Also known (from its first line) as "Lord of All Being [Throned Afar]". This is the concluding verse/stanza.
First published in Atlantic Monthly (1859-12) at the end of the last installment of his Professor at the Breakfast Table, where he prefaces it:Peace to all such as may have been vexed in spirit by any utterance these pages have repeated! They will, doubtless, forget for the moment the difference in the hues of truth we look at through our human prisms, and join in singing (inwardly) this hymn to the Source of the light we all need to lead us, and the warmth which alone can make us all brothers.
It was collected, as a poem, in his The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1863).
