| [1]Words by | Music by |
| Katharine Lee Bates | Will C. MacFarlane, |
| Municipal Organist, Portland, Maine |
1. 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!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee!
2. O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassion'd 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!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee!
3. 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 ev'ry gain divine!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee!
4. O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimm'd by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
From sea to shining sea!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee!
Copyright, 1913, by Will C.MacFarlane
SECTION VIII
WHAT A GIRL SCOUT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FLAG
We take the star from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.—George Washington.
The American flag is the symbol of the one-ness of the nation: when a Girl Scout salutes the flag, therefore, she salutes the whole country. The American Flag is known as "Old Glory," "Stars and Stripes," "Star-Spangled Banner," and "The Red, White and Blue."
The American flag today consists of red and white stripes, with the blue field, sometimes known as the Union in the upper left-hand corner, with forty-eight white stars. The thirteen stripes stand for the thirteen original States—New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The stars stand for the States now in the Union.