America the Beautiful
- jessicarauvoice
- 21 hours ago
- 1 min read
I was honored to sing in the opening trio beside Lesili Beard and Bethany Encina for this powerful reimagining of America the Beautiful by Shawn Kirchner. This piece closed Vox Femina's June 2026 concert I, Too, Sing America.
Here are Kirchner's timely reimagined lyrics of Katharine Lee Bates' original poetry:
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
May bounteous grace be shed on thee
Thy good be crowned with unity
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful that ancient feet
Beneath the countless stars,
Ten thousand years in Beauty walked,
Through wilderness unmarred.
But fateful then, that sailing fleets
A new world sought, and found,
And whose bright promise wrought a doom
Whose echoes yet resound.
America! America!
May God forgive thy vying strains.
Thy pride yet tame with rightful shame,
That others’ loss bought selfish gain.
O sorrowful for captive feet
In chains against their will,
Who toiled through centuries of wrong
To triumph still:
Whose heroes proved so beautiful
In claims of lawful rights,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God yet mend thine every flaw,
Redeem thy soul and be made whole,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed human tears.
America! America!
From farthest shores thy people stream,
The multitude that seek thy good,
And share a common dream.
America! America!
May God shed bounteous grace on thee,
Thy beauty crown with unity,
From sea to shining sea!
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