America the Beautiful

Before I was a song, I was a feeling. Imagine standing on top of a very tall mountain, so high that the clouds feel close enough to touch. That’s where I was born in the summer of 1893. A kind woman named Katharine Lee Bates traveled all the way to the top of a mountain called Pikes Peak. When she looked out, she saw skies that seemed to go on forever, huge fields of grain that looked like golden oceans waving in the wind, and tall mountains that glowed with a beautiful purple color in the distance. The view was so big and amazing that it filled her heart with a powerful feeling of wonder. She pulled out her notebook right there and wrote down everything she saw. Those first words were me. I am the song, America the Beautiful, and my story began as a poem about a truly breathtaking view.

For a little while, I was just a poem in Katharine's notebook. It was her special secret. But she knew my words were meant to be shared. On July 4th, 1895, Katharine sent me to a magazine, and I was printed for everyone to read. But I knew I was meant for more. I wanted to be sung. Far away, a man named Samuel A. Ward had written a lovely piece of music thirteen years earlier, back in 1882. He called his tune 'Materna.' He and Katharine never even met, which is a funny part of my story. For years, my words and his music lived apart. Then, someone discovered that his beautiful melody and her wonderful words fit together like a perfect puzzle. In the year 1910, we were finally published together, and I became the song you know today. I finally had a voice to share my story of spacious skies and shining seas.

Ever since then, I have traveled all across the country. I feel so proud when I hear my voice. People sing me at parades on sunny afternoons, in classrooms with their friends, and at big celebrations with fireworks. I help them remember all the beautiful things about their home, from the tall mountains that Katharine saw to the wide, flat plains filled with grain. My words remind them not just of the land, but of the importance of being kind and working together as friends. I am a song about beauty, friendship, and dreams for a good future. And whenever you sing my words, you are sharing that same feeling of wonder Katharine felt on that mountaintop so long ago. You help spread that beautiful feeling from one ocean to the other, from 'sea to shining sea'.