There have been many patriotic songs written about our country. Since 1776, when we became an independent country, one patriotic song after another has been written about our great country. From our national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” to “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” there has been a great many songs written about the beauty and virtues of our country and her people. Even today many songwriters still write patriotic songs. One of the patriotic songs that best speaks to the beauty of America is called “America the Beautiful.” This song is so well loved throughout the country that many people would like to see it become our national anthem. Let us look at the history of this great song.

“America the Beautiful,” which is also called the national hymn of the United States by many people started as a poem. Katherine Lee Bates, an English professor from Wellsely college, was the person who penned the original poem that later became the song. In 1893 she was on a long train ride to Colorado. As she watched the beauty of our country pass by her window she was inspired to right the poem. The story of Katherine and her poem states that she did not write the poem until she made a visit to Pike’s Peak, at which time she was awestruck by the view of the land below her. It is said that she wrote the poem as soon as she returned to her hotel. If you visit Pike’s Peak you will find that there is a plaque on top of the mountain commemorating Ms. Bates and the composition of her poem.

As with most poems and lyrics that were converted into music, her poem changed and evolved over time. For instance, her original poem had four verses; it was later expanded to eight verses. The first time that her poem was seen in print was in 1895, it was printed in a magazine called “The Congregationalist” to commemorate the 4th of July. Around 1904 she again added to and revised the poem then published it in the “Boston Evening Transcript.” At this point “America the Beautiful” was still a beautiful poem about the beauty of America. In 1910 it was adapted to a music score that had been written in 1882. The music was written by a composer that lived in New Jersey named Samuel Ward. Before Ward’s music and the poem were combined in 1910 people attached several different melodies to the poem. It took from 1893 until 1910 for this beautiful song to become the song we know and love today.

As mentioned above there are many people that would like to see “America the Beautiful” become the national anthem of the United States. This movement has been in motion since the middle of the 20th century, so far the movement has not had any success in getting the anthems changed. The people that would like to see this change come about say that although “The Star Spangled Banner” is a great song, it focuses on wartime imagery. They say on the other hand “America the Beautiful” focuses on the beauty of our country. The people that support the change would rather have beauty be the focus of our national anthem instead of war.

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