America the average?
America, The Beautiful, lyrics written by 34-year-old Katharine Lee Bates in 1913. What America was she writing about? What did she see then that we have trouble seeing today? Here are her words:
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 ev’ry 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 ev’ry 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!
The author of “America the Beautiful” was a professor of English at Wellesley College. Her father’s family left England and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1635. He was pastor of the Congregational Church on the Village Green at Falmouth on Cape Cod and died from a back injury when Katharine was one month old. Her mother, a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, moved the family to Wellesley where Bates graduated in 1880 from then-new Wellesley College, thanks to help from her two older brothers.
After spending a year at Oxford University, she began teaching English at Wellesley College and soon became a full professor. Her salary was $400 per year “with board and washing.” When she met Longfellow, he praised her high-school poem, “Sleep”. Writing was a continuing priority that provided some financial support–children’s stories, books of verse, textbooks, travel books based on her three sabbatical years in Europe and the Middle East.
In the summer of 1893, when she was lecturing at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Bates joined a group that took a rough prairie wagon ride plus a struggle by mule, followed by an exhausting hike to the top of 14,000 foot-high Pike’s Peak. Overwhelmed by what she saw, Bates scribbled in her notebook all four verses of our unofficial national anthem celebrating America. Later she remembered:
“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.”
When published, the poem was an instant hit. Her copyright provided continuing royalties for years.
At Wellesley the poet developed an intimate partnership with Katharine Coman, the professor of economics who was also dean of the college. Both were poets. They jointly wrote English History as Taught by English Poets. Their “Boston Marriage” of living together for twenty-five years ended in Coman’s death by cancer at age 57. Bates, in her agony, published Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance celebrating their love and their common labor not only in education and literature but also their involvement in social reform with their colleague Vida Scudder.
Bates died at home in Wellesley at the age of seventy. Her contribution to life is symbolized by our vibrant singing of “America the Beautiful.” A biography of her by Dorothy Burgess is Dream and Deed: The Story of Katherine Lee Bates issued by the University of Oklahoma Press. In addition to the Wellesley College dormitory bearing her name, a life-size bronze statue of her stands on the grounds of the Falmouth Public Library.
I believe what she saw in America in the early 1900’s were the possibilities of what American could be. She saw the grace of God blessing America with brotherhood across the entire country. And although she knew that America was not perfect she asks for God’s guidance to “mend thy every flaw”. She asks for man’s self-control and that liberty would become the law of the land. She knew others before her had sacrificed for her liberty as they gave of themselves for country and for future Americans. She wished for the nobility of man to shine through and that every mounting success be inspired by the divine.
I think this is where we are lacking in our vision of America today. I weep for America. I weep because we can no longer see the possibilities of America, but languish in the overwhelming troubles of the moment. We no longer see men performing noble acts of kindness toward their brothers, or placing others before their own greedy wants and desires. We have lost the belief in the grace of a divine spirit guiding our way to righteousness and brotherhood.
I want to sing this beautiful song again with all the joy and pride that this country has been blessed with. I want America to be exceptional in all aspects of the word. I want America to be exceptionally kind and strong, offering freedom for all to find their chosen path. It takes exceptional people to live free. Maybe we can find hope in Ms. Bates last prophetic verse:
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!