Alice and Joanie B. by Laurenjoan: My Country Tis of Thee...

My Country Tis of Thee -- America the Beautiful -- Star Spangled Banner

My Country, Tis of Thee

My country, tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims pride,

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

--Samuel Francis Smith, original poem, 1831

America

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!

~Katharine Lee Bates, original poem, 1893

Star Spangled Banner

O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed
at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?

--Francis Scott Key,
original poem, 1812

About the Songs: A Little History Lesson

America is one of the national hymns of the United States. The words were written in 1831 for a church school in Boston by Samuel Francis Smith, who was then studying for the ministry. The song was first sung at the school's Fourth of July celebration that year. Smith wrote the words to a melody that was popular in many European countries. He found the tune in a collection of German melodies. "God Save the Queen," the British national anthem, uses the same melody.

Source: Goertzen, V. (2013). America. In World Book Student.

(In World Book Student online by clicking here)

"America the Beautiful" also called O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, is one of the most familiar and popular American patriotic songs. Katharine Lee Bates, a college professor, wrote the words as a poem during a visit to Colorado in 1893. She was inspired by the view from Pikes Peak. The poem, which describes the wonders of America, was published on July 4, 1895. Source: Preston, K. K. (2013). America the Beautiful. In World Book Student. (In World Book Student online by clicking here)

Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key, wrote the song during the War of 1812. The U.S. Congress officially approved "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem in 1931.

Source: Goertzen, V. (2013). Star-Spangled Banner. In World Book Student. (In World Book Student online by clicking here)

**America the Beautiful @ SCCLD Libraries**
America the Beautiful Gall, an actual descendant of Bates, illustrates the four verses of this country's other national anthem with bold, clean-lined, heroic American scenes.	America the Beautiful A moving celebration of 'America the Beautiful' featuring artwork from ten distinguished artists and inspiring presidential quotes
America the Beautiful From internationally renowned humanitarian Dr. Ben Carson, here is a sobering and inspiring manifesto of America's greatness, her failings, and the values and changes it will take to carry our country into a prosperous future.	America the Beautiful The scrambled states of America. Disenchanted with their fixed places on the map, the states decide to swap spots in hopes that each can get to see a different part of the country and do something different for a change.