Comments on: Respecting a Hymn While Degrading Being, OR Right-Wing Morality Bred in the Bone http://btownerrant.com/2012/01/13/respecting-a-hymn-while-degrading-being-or-right-wing-morality-bred-in-the-bone/ Where Commoners Rant Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:55:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Douglas Storm http://btownerrant.com/2012/01/13/respecting-a-hymn-while-degrading-being-or-right-wing-morality-bred-in-the-bone/#comment-614 Douglas Storm Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:05:30 +0000 http://btownerrant.com/?p=2842#comment-614 oh, man, focus, I hate that song!

]]> By: focus http://btownerrant.com/2012/01/13/respecting-a-hymn-while-degrading-being-or-right-wing-morality-bred-in-the-bone/#comment-612 focus Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:13:47 +0000 http://btownerrant.com/?p=2842#comment-612 I was thinking about how I always liked “America, the Beautiful” much better. It was easier to sing, for one. And the lyrics were more evocative and more about natural beauty than anything else. So I looked up the lyrics to add here to contrast their stark picture of the bounty and beauty of America, in contrast to Star Spangled Banner. And I found the complete lyrics after googling it (on a boy/girl scouts page of all things). Here they are. They don’t seem to hold up as well for me after the first stanza. Maybe that’s why we only sang the first stanza in school. See for yourself:

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
Melody by Samuel Ward

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 of 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!

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 stem 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!

I have no idea what a whiter jubilee is. Maybe Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” is a better option.

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