My own America

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O blest and happy land of mine

Author: James Rowe
Tune: [O blest and happy land of mine]
Published in 1 hymnal

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 O blest and happy land of mine!
I sing in praise of thee;
For ev’ry vale and plain of thine
Is more than all the world to me.
I love thy quiet woods and dells,
Each winding stream and way;
With praise for thee my bosom swells,
My own America.

Refrain:
Dear country of the free,
Thy name exalted be;
I glory in thy matchless strength,
I pledge my heart to thee.
America, Columbia,
Dear homeland of the free,
I glory in thy matchless strength,
I pledge my heart to thee.

2 Our faithful fathers battled well
For home and liberty,
As in the face of shot and shell
They shed their precious blood for thee.
And if again thy voice should call
Thy children to the fray,
As many more would fight and fall
For thee, America. [Refrain]

3 O may thy greatness still increase,
Still more thy glory shine
Upon the snowy wings of peace,
Thou well-beloved land of mine!
And may our fathers’ God still be
Their children’s hope and stay;
This, this for thee, my prayer and plea,
My own America. [Refrain]

Source: Sunday School Voices: a collection of sacred songs #153

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Author: James Rowe

Pseudonym: James S. Apple. James Rowe was born in England in 1865. He served four years in the Government Survey Office, Dublin Ireland as a young man. He came to America in 1890 where he worked for ten years for the New York Central & Hudson R.R. Co., then served for twelve years as superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. He began writing songs and hymns about 1896 and was a prolific writer of gospel verse with more than 9,000 published hymns, poems, recitations, and other works. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >

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