The Purple Mountain Majesties
There are just a few songs about America that truly do a good job of capturing the sense of awe and reverence the citizens of this country have or should have about their beloved country. But of them all, America the Beautiful does the job beautifully. When one travels across this great land, it is impossible not to be reminded of those beautiful words…
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!
The geography of the homeland of America would have to be listed as the most beautiful country land on earth. Yes, there are some countries in this world that do have wonderful places to see and enjoy. From the amazing mountains of the Swiss Alps to the exotic wonder of the Amazon River to the stunning wonder of the Sahara Desert to the beautiful cities of Europe, each country has its claim to fame.
But America stands head and shoulders above all of these because it doesn’t have just one magnificent natural wonder to give inspiration and joy to visitors and citizens, it has them all. Across the North American continent, you can find a natural beauty and a wonder of nature that will surprise, delight and inspire the visitor just as much as any similar location around the world.
We don’t just have one magnificent mountain range, we have many. From the mighty Rocky Mountains to the Olympia Mountains in Washington State to the rustic Appalachian Mountains in the southwest to the Adirondacks in upstate New York, America has a variety of mountain geography that is the most beautiful in the entire world.
But America is not just a wonderful mountain wonderland. America boasts a diversity of landscape that gives her citizens such a diversity of choices when they wish to enjoy nature that it seems they will never run out. America’s beaches from the perfectly white sands of Florida to the challenging surfing beaches of California leave nothing to be desired for those who must get back to the ocean.
Virtually every landscape and natural setting that could be imagined is evidenced within the boundaries of America. There are even exotic locations that you might expect to only find in the far places of deep, dark Africa or by safari into upper Tibet. America can boast volcanoes that take a back seat to no one in terms of amazing power and might. Our homeland has far reaching deserts. We boast rain forests that would make you swear you are in the deepest jungles of Asia and paradise locations of Hawaii and Alaska as well.
They say that the land of America is what inspires the greatness of its people and you would have to say that is true when you look at the vast reaches of this continent. It literally calls out to it’s people to conquer this huge land, make it their own and be as great of a people as it is a geography.
And the people of America have responded to the challenge the continent has made to become a people of vision and unstoppable ambition and for whom nothing is impossible. So when we sing proudly of the beauty of America in the Star Spangled Banner, The Stars and Stripes Forever or America the Beautiful, we sing of a great land that is well suited for the phenomenal nation that has grown up within its shores. But we also sing of a people who are just as awe inspiring as that land and whose majesty is just as breath taking as those purple mountains the poets dreamed of when we composed those great anthems.