oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain

It was at that time that the poem was first entitled “America”. It was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. The two never met.īates wrote the words as a poem originally entitled “Pikes Peak”.

Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. Its lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A.

“America the Beautiful” is a patriotic American song. It wasn’t until after his 1903 death, by at least 1909, that his music was first used with Katharine Lee Bates’s verses to form the popular “America the Beautiful” hymn. The “America” poem was set to music by Silas G. Correspondence has been made with her archives at Wellesley College, but there is no explanation of the new discovery of the 1902 revision. Katharine Lee Bates told The Congregationalist of June 28, 1923, that the revised version had been printed in the Boston (MA) Evening Transcript in 1904.

The poem, titled “America the Beautiful,” was printed in the Buffalo (NY) Illustrated Times on November 9, 1902, with this first stanza: “Above the enameled plain” was changed to “Above the emerald plain.” The poem was printed in the Christian Observer (Louisville, KY) on October 15, 1902. The poem, titled “America,” was printed in The Congregationalist (Boston, MA) on July 4, 1895, with this first stanza: The words to the poem “America the Beautiful” were composed by Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1928) in 1893, after a visit to Pike’s Peak in 1893.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain