Fourth verse from "America the Beautiful":
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!
-- by Katherine Lee Bates
The fourth verse is about the future. This verse, I think, is frequently misunderstood. It is an example of a hymn-text that, if you phrase it wrong Ð the way the music suggests rather than the way the punctuation suggests Ð you will misunderstand it. If you take a breath after the first line and you think that a unit is "Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears," you are saying that in the United States the cities gleam like alabaster and nobody weeps in them. That is patent nonsense.
Cincinnati gleams on a sunny day if you can see through the smog. But our cities do not gleam like alabaster and there is plenty of reason for tears in our cities: with violence brought on by the drug trade and other things, and the poverty brought on, in large part, by the rape of the cities, the flight to suburbs and exurbs by industry and commerce and people. This verse does not claim something that is not true; rather, it celebrates those who have a vision for the future and calls them "patriots." "O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears." When we sing that verse we rejoice in any who have the insight to envision a future in which our country embodies the truths that we claim to be self-evident.
Robert A. Keefer