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| | Lyrics and Music |
 | | The lyrics to this beautiful song were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) an instructor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, after an inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1893. |
 | | Her poem, America the Beautiful first appeared in print in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal, on July 4, 1895. |
 | | For example, in 1926 the National Federation of Music Clubs held a contest to put the poem to new, reportedly "less somber," music, but no other entry was determined to be more acceptable. |
| www.niehs.nih.gov /kids/lyrics/america.htm (351 words) |
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