| 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!
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 pilgrims 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 and 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!
|
The
Star-Spangled Banner
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early
light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last
gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the
perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly
streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in
air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was
still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the
deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence
reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering
steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half
discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first
beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the
stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly
swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's
confusion
A home and a country should leave us no
more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's
pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and
slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the
grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth
wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall
stand
Between their loved homes and the war's
desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the
heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a
nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is
just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our
trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall
wave
O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave!
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