Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy July 4th

Here's a video clip accompanied by Ray Charles' rendition of America the Beautiful to help celebrate today, America's Independence Day.





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 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.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
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.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabster 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.


Lyrics by Kathy Lee Bates
Music: Originally sung to 'Auld Lang Syne, & any other popular or folk tune that fit the lyrics. Commonly song now with music "Materna," composed by Samuel A. Ward in 1882, 10 years before lyrics/poem were written.

3 comments:

  1. Hope your 4th of July is filled with friends and fun and is a memorable one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Puteri,looking at your query posed at Groovy Tuai, can I say that you were one of those Tanjong Lobang students in one of those years? Which year was that?

    My name is Henry. I studied in Tanjong Lobang from 1977 through 1980. Recently we had a small reunion at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuching. That reunion had given birth to strong desire to have a bigger one at the earliest possible convenience. Tracking down former students is one of my tasks. I hope you will pass this blog again. I can be contacted at hjnyaru@yahoo.co.uk Please do drop me a line or two to assist us in realising our humble hope to meet the former Kenyalangs.

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  3. This year, we didn't get invited to any July 4th bar-b-ques. :-( Maybe it is about time we hosted one ourselves? Heheh.

    ReplyDelete

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