Echoes in Eternity

We sang America the Beautiful in our church this past Sunday, in anticipation of the upcoming Independence Day. Then today, I saw that Mark Steyn had made it his Song of the Week.

This Fourth of July, Americans will sing the first verse, which at most performances nowadays is all we hear. But Miss Bates had more to say than mere topographic description. "America" is a fusion of the beauty of the land with the glory of the idea. As she wrote in the second verse:

Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law...

Which is a more controversial notion in Massachusetts today than it was back then - that liberty operates best within self-imposed restraints.
...
For what could be a better summation of the nation than a patriotic anthem born in the majestic sweep of the Rockies and over the steaming hot dogs of Coney Island?

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!