The poet who wrote the words to “America the Beautiful,” Katharine Lee Bates, was born into a modest Massachusetts family in 1859, the youngest of five children. Her father died when she was a baby. At that time, boys were more likely to get an education than girls. But her brothers worked so she could go to school. At the age of 26, Katharine became an English teacher at Wellesley College. She also taught Shakespeare and wrote poetry.
In June 1893, Katharine boarded a train to teach for a summer at Colorado College. The trip included the glorious Niagara Falls, the Chicago World’s Fair, the amber waves of Kansas cereals, and the majestic purple mountains of Colorado Springs.
Katharine remembers, “One day some of the other teachers and I decided to take a trip to Pikes Peak, at 14,000 feet. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top, we had to leave the wagon and follow the rest of the I walked. on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the sight, I felt a great joy. All the wonders of America seemed to unfold there, with the expanse like a sea.”
Just like today, the United States in the late 19th century was divided politically. Issues of land use, immigration, racial tension, and economic inequality divide the nation. Although the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, ensured that people could not be denied the right to vote because of their race, women could not vote for another 50 years.
Then came the Panic of 1893 – the depression lasted four years. It affected all sectors of the economy: Wall Street brokerage houses collapsed; more than 600 banks and 16,000 companies went bankrupt; unemployment reached 20% and thousands of farmers lost their land.
The political and economic climate was bleak when Katharine Lee Bates reached the summit of Pikes Peak. However, inspired by the beauty from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, she wrote the first draft of her iconic poem, “America the Beautiful.” She saw her country mistreated but “not dimmed by human tears” and prayed to God to “crown her good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.”
He wrote about the beauty of the earth and brotherly love. He recognized the march of the pilgrims for freedom and the sacrifice of the patriots for the homeland. His poem pointed to the need for self-control and law: “Confirm your soul in self-control, your freedom in law!” Looking to the future, he saw the need for God’s help and grace: “America! America! God repair all your defects… May God pour out his grace on you.”
Have things changed since Katharine wrote those sentences? Some cities are gloomy, not shimmering. Our people are divided, freedoms in danger and the government inflated. Our national origin is painted as evil, our history distorted, our monuments destroyed, and our three branches of government and founding documents hang in the balance. In fact, “all the flaws” have not been fixed.
However, every time we hear chords of “América la Bella”, we sing and pray together: “America! America! God poured out his grace on you.” God answers our prayers. America is still beautiful, magnificent in many ways.
Like Katharine Lee Bates, I choose to see the beauty in America and honor this great nation. So, in each successive column, I’ll look at the good we’ve done, the progress we’ve made, and the flaws we’ve fixed. I will highlight the “patriotic dream that sees beyond the years” and celebrate what makes America beautiful.
