America the Beautiful

While the iconic line “from sea to shining sea” was not in the original draft of the song, it has become an important aspect of the song’s imagery and legacy. In fact, the line embodies the entire song’s message and thematic concerns.

To understand this, it’s important to understand how the oceans relate to American mythology and the history of the country. America is unique in modern times because it took a perilous journey across a great ocean just to reach it. Only the bravest or most desperate would make that journey, and it quickly became a symbolic one as people left the old world, crossed a great threshold, and arrived in a virgin (to them) land. Thus, the Atlantic became symbolic as a divide between old and new.

However, as the country progressed and people expanded westward, the Pacific Ocean became the new oceanic symbol in America. The Pacific’s shining waters represented a goal for the country, and that goal was Manifest Destiny, or the idea that the West belonged to America and that it was God’s will for Americans to expand until they reached the golden coast. In this sense, the Pacific Ocean represented