O beautiful for spacious skies

During the summer of 1893, somewhere within the 14,000’ elevation of Pikes Peak in Colorado, Katharine Lee Bates joined a group of teachers as they journeyed up this rugged terrain in a prairie wagon.  Once they reached a certain level, the group left the wagon, mounted mules and continued on.

A very tired Bates felt a bit weary as they progressed, until she gazed upon the sea-like expanse before her.  The tiredness Katharine felt quickly disappeared as she was filled with great joy.  Across the panoramic vastness, Katharine seemed to see all the wonders of America displayed before her.  Grabbing her notebook, she wrote: ...we stood at last on that Gate-of-Heaven summit….and gazed in wordless rapture over the far expanse of mountain ranges and the sea-like sweep of plain.  Returning to her room at the Antler’s Hotel in Colorado Springs, she composed the first draft of the poem which would become ‘America the Beautiful’.   

Descended from settlers of Hingham, Massachusetts, Katharine’s father pastored the Congregational Church on the Village Green at Falmouth on Cape Cod.  The youngest of four children, she was born on August 12, 1859.  When Katharine was a month old, her father developed a spinal tumor and died soon afterwards. 

The death of William Bates left his family in dire financial straits.  Though the family received a pension, the sum was meager and supplemental sources of income were required.  The family pitched in together to help – her mother grew and sold vegetables and poultry, in addition to working as a seamstress.  Her brothers picked cranberries, herded cows and caught/sold muskrat skins and herring.  Piece work from the local tag manufacturer was completed by all family members. 

Even though the family worked long, hard hours, Cornelia Bates, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, was determined her children would receive a proper education.  She later moved the family to Grantville, a small town near Wellesley, Massachusetts, to care for Cornelia’s ailing sister.  Friends helped acquire housing and things slowly began to improve for the Bates family. 

While Katharine was in high school, she learned of the new women’s college being built in the nearby town of Wellesley and set her sites on attending this school.  She honed her chances for acceptance by enrolling in advanced courses in high school and doing some teaching.  She also penned a poem she entitled, “Sleep”.   Katharine received acceptance to the college in 1876 and became part of Wellesley’s second graduating class.

Wellesley’s academic atmosphere provided the ‘soil’ which allowed Katharine’s talents to blossom.  With Greek and English as her chosen fields, Katharine frequently enjoyed the quiet comfort of the Browning Room where she delved into the works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  She also took advantage of the opportunity to roam throughout the picturesque New England landscape with surrounded the college. 

Though Katharine enjoyed a good many solitary moments, she had an active social life on campus.  Her fellow students elected her to the committee responsible for drafting the class constitution and also voted her class president.  Her skills with poetry began to develop and she received the title Class Day Poet when she read one of her poems during her class’s commencement ceremonies. 

Following graduation, Katharine taught at Natick High School.  She later spent a year at Oxford University, then returned to Wellesley College to teach English.  Before long, she was a full professor, receiving a salary of $400/year, complete with ‘board and washing’.  During her tenure as a professor, she met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  She shared with him her high school poem and received his praise.  The rest of her teaching career would be spent at Wellesley, ending with her retirement in 1925.    

By now, writing was a high priority for Katharine, and from it she received a level of financial support.  Her creations feel within a variety of genres – stories for children, textbooks, poetry and books based on her travels during three years she spent on sabbatical in the Middle East and Europe. 

Katharine enjoyed entertaining in her home on a regular basis.  Her guest lists normally included noted literary figures such as poets Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg and William Butler Yeats.

Once the poem America the Beautiful was completed, it was published for the first time in a weekly journal entitled, The Congregationalist, for the July 4, 1895 edition.  Bates later revised the poem a bit and it reached an even larger audience when published in the Boston Evening Transcript on November 19, 1904.  In 1913, she revised her poem one more time, expanding it even further.  This version was published in a collection entitled, America the Beautiful, and Other Poems.  The copyrighted piece provided her with continued royalties over the years. 

It is a well known fact when anyone writes a poem/book or compose a song, somewhere a critic will find it necessary to express his/her opinion of the piece. Katharine Bates would not be an exception to this rule.  Shortly after her collection was published, a reviewer from the New York Times stated, “We intend no derogation to Miss Katharine Lee Bates when we say that she is a good minor poet.”  One can only wonder if this enlightened soul ever attempted to put pen to paper in much the same manner; and if so, the level of quality ascribed to the work which resulted from the effort. 

Katharine Lee Bates passed away on March 28, 1929 at her home in Wellesley from pneumonia.  She was 70 years old at the time.  A dorm on the Wellesley College campus now wears her name and a life-size bronze statue stands on the grounds of the Falmouth Public Library.  The Bates family home on Falmouth's Main Street is preserved by the Falmouth Historical Society.  Katharine’s life and the contributions she made are eulogized each time the wonderful words to America the Beautiful are sung.   

America the Beautiful

 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 pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thorough-fare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country lov'd
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.