Katharine Lee Bates

Katharine Lee Bates (12 August 1859 – 28 March 1929) was an American author and poet, chiefly remembered for her anthem "America the Beautiful", but also for her many books and articles on social reform, on which she was a noted speaker.

America the Beautiful (1893, 1895; 1904)

 * Written in 1893, first published in The Congregationalist in 1895, revised in 1904; first titled "America the Beautiful" in 1910.



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!''' 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 spacious skies,
 * Variant:
 * O beautiful for halcyon skies,
 * First stanza of the earlier version "America : A Poem for July 4", in The American Kitchen Magazine, Vol. VII, No. 4 (July 1897), p. 151

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.'''
 * O beautiful for pilgrim feet

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 ev'ry gain divine.
 * '''O beautiful for heroes prov'd

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 patriot dream

America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

 * America the Beautiful and Other Poems (1911)

The Falmouth Bell

 * Section II, p. 39



Than our Falmouth by the sea.''' Tender curves of sky look down On her grace of knoll and lea.
 * '''Never was there lovelier town

Of the gifts of shore and field, Starred with treasures rare and strange That the liberal sea-chests yield.''' Culture here burns breezy torch Where gray captains, bronzed of neck Tread their little length of porch With a memory of the deck. Ah, and here the tenderest hearts, Here where sorrows sorest wring And the widows shift their parts Comforted and comforting. Holy bell of Paul Revere Calling such to prayer and praise. While a hundred times the year Herds her flock of faithful days!
 * '''Here is princely interchange

Of our Falmouth by the sea! Answered by the ocean swell, Ring thy centuried Jubilee! Like the white sails of the Sound, '''Hast thou seen the years drift by, From the dreamful, dim profound To a goal beyond the eye.'''
 * Greetings to thee, ancient bell

Floats o'er land and listening deep, And we deem our fathers hear From their shadowy hill of sleep. '''Ring thy peals for centuries yet, Living voice of Paul Revere! Let the future not forget That the past accounted dear!'''
 * Still thy mellow voice and clear

The Ideal

 * Section III, p. 59

By the song of the sea that compelleth the path of the rockcleaving stream, I summon thee, recreant dreamer, to rise and follow thy dream.'''
 * '''By the promise of noon"s blue splendor in the dawn"s first silvery gleam,

From thine own altar-flame kindled in the hour when souls aspire, For know that men"s prayers shall be answered, and guard thy spirit"s desire.
 * In the inmost core of thy being I am a burning fire,

As the oak, astir in the acorn, the dull earth rendeth apart, Lo thou, the seed of thy longing, that breaketh and waketh the heart.'''
 * '''That which thou wouldst be thou must be, that which thou shalt be thou art;

Moaning I echo thy music, and e"en while thou boastest to reap Alien harvests, my anger resounds from the vehement deep.
 * I am the cry of the night wind, startling thy traitorous sleep;

Faint waxes the voice of thy fellow, wan the light on his face. Life is as cloud-drift about thee alone in shelterless space.
 * '''I am the solitude folding thy soul in a sudden embrace.

Vainly covet for greenness. Loitering pace or fleet, Thine is the crag-path chosen. On the crest shall rest be sweet.
 * I am the drawn sword barring the lanes thy mutinous feet

Darkens upon thee, the azure outblotted by rush of the rain. All thou dost cherish may perish; still shall thy quest remain.'''
 * '''I am thy strong consoler when the desolate human pain

Yet bethink thee by lowland and upland, wherever thou wiliest to wend, I am thine Angel of Judgment; mine eyes thou must meet in the end.'''
 * '''Call me thy foe in thy passion; claim me in peace for thy friend;

The Debt (1923)

 * The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. CXXXII (September 1923), p. 353

Because the silence is so near, I sing;''' "Twere ill to quit an inn where I have had Such bounteous fare nor pay my reckoning. I would not, from some gleaming parapet Of Sirius or Vega, bend my gaze On a remembered sparkle and regret That from it thanklessly I went my ways Up through the starry colonnades nor found Violets in any Paradise more blue Than those that blossomed on my own waste ground Nor vespers sweeter than the robins knew.
 * '''Because the years are few, I must be glad;

Heaven"s wild frontier by tragedy beset, Only a Shakespeare may her gifts requite. Only a happy Raphael pay his debt.''' Yet I, to whom, even as to these, are given Cascading foam, emblazoned butterflies, The moon"s pearl chariot through the massed clouds driven, And the divinity of loving eyes, Would make my peace now with mine hostess Earth, Give and take pardon for all brief annoy, And toss her, far beneath my lodging"s worth, Poor that I am, a coin of golden joy.
 * '''Though earth be but an outpost of delight,