Words: Katharine Lee Bates, 1859-1929
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 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.
Happy Fourth of July
Beautiful! Even watching it on video gives you goose bumps. Several years ago while visiting my son in the Boston area over the Fourth we were treated to special seats for the Boston Pops and fireworks celebration! Peter's military status gave us wonderful access. The National Anthem and God Bless America always bring tears and a lump in my throat!
ReplyDeleteMay I add this?
ReplyDeleteThe phrase, "amber waves of grain," - not til I lived in Kansas did I fully appreciate those words.
Ouida, Thanks for bringing into focus the reason why today is important. Today, we commemorate our past with parades and celebrate our present with hot dogs, ribs, swimming and, yes, watermelon. But, tonight we bring them both together with inspiring music and :
ReplyDeleteFIREWORKS
Not guns, not thunder, but a clutter of clouded drums that announce a fiesta: abruptly, fiery needles circumscribe on the night boundless chrysanthemums. Softly, they break apart, they flake away, where Darkness, on a svelte hiss, swallows them. Delicate brilliance: a bellflower opens, fades, In a sprinkle of falling stars. Night absorbs them with the sponge of her silence.
A poem by Babette Deutsch