A decade later, “Materna” was published in books of Episcopal hymnals, and the choir Ward directed at Grace Episcopal sang it.
One afternoon, as Samuel walked through downtown Newark, New Jersey, he heard the angelic sounds of children singing. He recognized “Materna” and stopped and listened, moved by the melody. When he got home, he told his wife wistfully, “It really is a lovely hymn.”[9]
—
Lake Avenue Baptist in Rochester, New York, likely became the first congregation in the world to sing Katie’s poetic verses set to Samuel Ward’s melody. It was such a hit with the congregants that the elementary school principal included it in the commencement exercises the following week. It spread throughout Rochester, then the rest of New York and the rest of the country.
In 1911, Katharine Lee Bates, our Katie, published the final version of her best-known masterpiece, one that struck a chord in the hearts of Americans, as conflict darkened the doorstep of Europe. A conflict that would eventually burst into the flames that would consume Europe and singe America too.
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!
Though her poem was bringing joy across the country, the next few years were dark ones for Katie and Katharine. They were living together in a house that they had designed and dubbed the Scarab, working at their dream jobs at Wellesley, content with their charming pets and their wide circle of friends. But everything changed in 1912, when Katharine Coman found a lump in her breast.[10]
Cancer was a word spoken about in whispers in the early twentieth century. Some people mistakenly believed it was contagious, others found it shameful. Doctors recommended that Katharine undergo a radical mastectomy, which involved removing all of her breast tissue, the surrounding lymph nodes, and large portions of her pectoral muscles. At a minimum, Katharine would be permanently disabled with the loss of much of her chest. She also faced the very real possibility of living the rest of her life in crippling pain.
Katie became the first known person to write a breast cancer narrative, as she watched her beloved suffer through the surgery. Katharine recuperated at home, surrounded by their collie and their friends. She never returned to her full quality of life, but she had it better than most breast cancer patients of the time, who were typically shuttered away in darkened rooms, hidden from society.[11]
Once, I found myself sitting in the warm September sunshine on the lawn of the White House, the porticos of the West Wing guarded by dozens of serious men and women in sunglasses and suits. The seal of the United States draped the familiar columns before me, the Washington Monument stood sentinel at my back. I listened as James Taylor invited everyone to sing Katie’s words set to Samuel’s melody of quiet majesty. Tears blurred my vision as his kind, familiar voice began, and around me, all the assembled voices of politicians and dignitaries, workers and aides, joined in, hesitant at first, and then with growing conviction, giving voice to the ideals and dreams that we all nurse in our most secret American hearts.
The themes Katie loved are all there: the beauty of nature, the hope for the future, the unlimited potential of America. She vividly remembered the news of Lincoln’s assassination when she was a child. As an adult, she marveled at the miracle of a radio broadcast from Antarctica.
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Each stanza begins with an appreciation of what America is and has done. It crescendos into a moment of passion for her beloved country, and ends in a prayer for the future.
O beautiful for heroes proved
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 every gain divine!
Unlike “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which is difficult to sing and deeply rooted in military imagery, “America the Beautiful” is about the land of America and her people.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
