Maybe worth re-reading, on this Inauguration Day, the full lyrics of 'America the Beautiful.' So familiar an old warhorse that we may not always stop to hear its felt pleas for the better angels of the national soul to stand up against the Gilded Age greed, nationalistic overreach, general hubris of its time. Themes only too relevant still.

It won't happen, nor maybe should it, but still I feel glad each time there is a little swell of agita for this to be made our national anthem.

America the Beautiful

(Katherine Lee Bates, 1904, 1913)

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 impassion'd 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 prov'd
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.

America. A Poem for July 4

(Bates's original version, 1893)

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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought

By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale

Of liberating strife,

When once or twice, for man's avail,

Men lavished precious life!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

Till selfish gain no longer stain,

The banner of the free!

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

Till nobler men keep once again

Thy whiter jubilee!

This is now sung at many professional sports events (as well as the national anthem). I don't know if they are trying in some small way to make up for their excesses or just playing to the patriotic crowd. Regardless, I still enjoy hearing it and joining in.

Best regards,

RA1

Lord knows I don't always go in for humility, much less self-control, but those notes seem especially right in such a piece.

...America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life...