Katharine Lee Bates

Katharine Lee Bates Poems

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
...

THOUGH the winds but stir on their hoary thrones
Of hemlock and pungent pine,
All the whispering woodland tones
...

The Old Year groaned as he trudged away,
His guilty shadow black on the snow,
And the heart of the glad New Year turned grey
At the road Time bade him go.
...

[sung to tune: "All Saints New"]
...

My love, my love, if you could come once more
From your high place,
I would not question you for heavenly lore,
But, silent, take the comfort of your face.
...

Honor and pity for the smitten field,
The valorous ranks mown down like precious corn,
Whose want must famish love morn after morn,
Till Death, the good physician, shall have healed
...

7.

At the crowded gangway they kissed good-bye.
He had half a mind to scold her.
An officer's mother and not keep dry
The epaulet on his shoulder.
...

WHITE year, white year,
Muffled soft in snow,
A diamond spray whose gems are gone
Before their grace we know
...

Bodies glad, erect,
Beautiful with youth,
Life's elect,
Nature's truth,
...

1899

Who would trust England, let him lift his eyes
To Nelson, columned o'er Trafalgar Square,
...

WHAT song is in the sap of this brave oak-tree
That to the north-star faces,
Ravened each June by caterpillar masses
...

And what of thee, O Lincoln's Land? What gloom
Is darkening above the Sunset Sea?
Vowed Champion of Liberty, deplume
Thy war-crest, bow thy knee,
...

The day was hotter than words can tell,
So hot the jelly-fish wouldn't jell.
The halibut went all to butter,
...

RED, white, blue, the flag that leads us on,
Stripes as red as blood well shed by many a hero gone.
...

OUR blue sierras shone serene, sublime,
When ghostly shapes came crowding up the air,
Shadowing the landscape with some vast despair;
...

Grim stones whose gray lips keep your secret well,
Our hands that touch you touch an ancient terror,
An ancient woe, colossal citadel
...

17.

COLOSSAL orb of space,
Sparkling with diamond
Of countless star on star,
All whirling with wild grace
...

WE bore them their own wild heather
And ash-boughs jeweled red,
There where they sleep together,
Greatest of Norway's dead.
...

I HEARD him preach in Oxford years ago,
A snowy-haired and tender-faced apostle.
I watched the beech against the window blow,
...

SHRUNKEN little bodies, pallid baby faces,
Eyes of staring terror, innocence defiled,
Tiny bones that strew the sand of silent places,
...

The Best Poem Of Katharine Lee Bates

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, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every 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!

Katharine Lee Bates Comments

Paul Amrod 13 June 2019

I am highly embarrassed with this rubbish.

1 0 Reply
Hebert Logerie Sr. 19 January 2017

This poem is divinely beautiful, and very aspiring. All Americans (all Poets) should revere and remember the name of Katharine Lee Bates. This is really wonderful. The words are divine and mystical.

1 1 Reply
Ogbonna Solomon 22 March 2011

what a wonderful poems, you have a nice works and nice thoughts.U can also read mine, am just new here.

5 6 Reply

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