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

 

That’s as much as anyone knows of the lyrics of this famous song, but there are quite a few more, worth consulting at this space of more than a century since these words were penned by Katharine Lee Bates.

Who was this woman who wrote “America the Beautiful”?

She was a poet, songwriter and scholar who became a full professor of English literature at Wellesley College. This daughter of a pastor and lifelong active Republican broke with the party in 1924 to endorse Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis, because of Republican opposition to America joining the League of Nations, which she saw as “our one hope of peace on earth”.

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I felt great joy

 

During the summer of 1893, while teaching at Colorado Springs, Katharine went on a trip to Pike’s Peak with some colleagues.  They rented a prairie wagon. When she attained the peak, she writes, “I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.” It was this view that inspired her to write “America the Beautiful.”

 

 

 

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!

 

This sounds quaint to modern ears. The soul and self-control are not usually spoken of in the same sentence. Self-control does not seem elevated enough for the soul to bother about.

But is not self-control the sine qua non, the irreducible essential of patience, forbearance and forgiveness?  None of these nobler virtues can exist where self-control is not. A wall cannot be built without a foundation.

 

 Self-control is a super power

 

Yes, let us have that mental hesitation, those instinctive brakes, that divine guidance that keeps us from always leaping after pure self-interest.

 

Confirm thy soul in self-control

Thy liberty in law