Miikawaadad Gichi-mookomaan-aki (America the Beautiful)
Jim Spry & Margaret Noodin. Photo by Janis Fairbanks.
The words to this song, written by Wellesley College professor, Katharine Lee Bates, first appeared as a poem in a Congregationalist publication in 1895. By 1900 there were over 70 musical versions of the poem, but it was when a Baptist preacher, Clarence Barbour, paired it with music by Episcopal choirmaster, Samuel Ward, that the song was first heard as we sing it now.
The anthem continues to be one that unifies and reaches across differences and has been recorded by hundreds of artists including: Bing Crosby, Charlie Rich, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Vince Gill, Brenda Lee, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Streisand, Lyle Lovitt, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and many others.
Songs with Jim Spry
1
O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
Miikawaadad ishpaagiizhig, ozawaa-mashkosi
for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain!
gichi-miiniwajiwan, ishpayi’ii atenoon aki!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee
Gichi-mookomaan-aki! Gichi-debenjiged
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
zhaawenimig imaa ayaayan besho gichigami.
2
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress
Miikawaadad bimikawaanan waabandamang miziwe akiing
a thoroughfare for freedom beat, across the wilderness.
mii dash dibenindizowin atemigak omaa.