Andreas Jaeggi: "The Sidney Farm: An Ernest L. & Harriet Richards Family Heritage Site"
Oil & Pencil on Canvas, 47” x 59”, 2020

Words Do Matter.
Happy 4th of July 2020 !
 
"America The Beautiful"
Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates 1893
Music by Samuel A. Ward 1883
First Published 1910
The composer and the lyricist never met.

Sung by Andreas Jaeggi

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!