A song I’ve never thought much about has been literally haunting me for a few weeks now. It’s one of those songs that we’ve sung so often over the years that the lyrics somehow become lost through the continuous repetition.
I was out in the midwest visiting a friend a couple of weeks ago – and, because of my surroundings no doubt, couldn’t seem to get the beautiful spacious skies/amber waves of grain (words and melody) out of my head for days on end.
Oddly … strangely coincidentally … my youngest sister is getting married this weekend, and my daughter and I are singing and playing the piano for her wedding. My sister and her new husband-to-be are patriots (capital P), and the one and only non-classical piece they have requested is an understated, but moving arrangement of ‘America the Beautiful’. As my daughter and I were rehearsing tonight, I was struck by the words, again, more than I ever have been – perhaps because of the particular frame of mind I am in of late, or perhaps because of the current state of the world, or a combination of the two. Yet I am realizing that they seem so fitting for the remnant, of which you and I and others here on this forum will choose to be a part, during the difficult days that lie ahead. They remind us from where we came, and where our vision must lie.
(Somehow, if not sung, but simply read as prose, they become even more meaningful. Try to read the words without also hearing the melody.):
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 their 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.
The song asks God to mend America’s every flaw.
To confirm her soul in self control.
To confirm her liberty in law.
It describes her heroes as having been ‘proved’ in liberating strife … and loving their country more than themselves … and mercy more than life.
It asks God to refine her until all of her successes are noble, and every gain is divine.
Little did I realize, when we were singing these words ad nauseum in the second grade, that these simple ideas could serve as a heartfelt prayer, petitioning Him for help, strength and guidance in all of the areas in which they are now so desperately needed, so many decades later.
~ joanie
Tx.
Beautifully said, lass.
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 their 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.
A classic...MUD
Yep...MUD