America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain, 

For purple mountains majesty 

Above thy 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, 

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! 

-Katherine Lee Bates

 

 

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