One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.



Katherine Lee Bates, a prolific poet and a professor of English Literature at Wellesley College, died on this date in 1929. She is the author of the poem which was first published in The Congregationalist on July 4, 1895 and for which more than sixty musical settings have since been composed. The national hymn of the United States.



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 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 the 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!