Majesties of the Land

Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) was a poet and professor of English literature at Wellesley College.

- JOHN O'HERN

In 1893, on a lecture tour to Colorado Springs, she joined a group that made the arduous trek to the top of Pikes Peak. Overwhelmed by the view, she wrote in her notebook about “the sea-like expanse of fertile country . . . under those ample skies,” and “the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” The lines are: “O beautiful for spacious skies, / For amber waves of grain, / For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain!”

America the Beautiful was published in 1895 and later set to music by S.A. Ward. The two never met, but their work has inspired generations. Bates was surprised by the popularity of her poem and reflected that the “hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.”

The poem celebrates the beauty of the landscape as well as the love of soldiers for their country, the confirmation of liberty through law and the hope to “crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!”

George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879) painted View of Pike’s Peak in 1872. The Clovis people lived in the area around 11,000 BCE. More recently in has been inhabited by the Ute, Comanche, Arapaho and Cheyenne. The Ute called it “Sun Mountain.” The Arapaho called it “Long Mountain.” The Spanish called it “El Capitán.” Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike named it “Grand Peak.” It became known as “Pike’s Peak” and, in 1890, it lost the apostrophe.