I suspect there really isn't a good factual answer beyond, "that's just the way it is settled out over time."

The full version generally takes more than 6 minutes to sing which I suspect is simply longer than most people want to spend on it. And most people suck at singing it anyway so why lengthen the pain. Plus, when engaging in vacuous acts of pseudo-patriotism being too lazy to actually finish it is a nice damning touch. Finally, it would be rude to make old people stand that long, in the hot sun with their hats off, at baseball games.

I gotta imagine it's a length thing. No one wants to spend that much time singing an anthem.

My relatives came over on the Mayflower. I'm exempt from know these things.

That's a good question. As a follow-up, you might ask your friend why she doesn't go back to wherever the hell she came from.

I really like the second verse.


So I'll say they dropped the 3rd and 4th because they were gruesome and dismal and stretched beyond rhyme-singing possibility.




But the second verse is awesome and inspiring and, frankly, better at conveying what I thought as the historical essence of the piece than the part we all actually sing. I don't know why we dropped it, but I wish we hadn't.

Agree with them. Besides, it's way to hard to retrain everyone to start cheering after 3 more verses.


Eh, my mom knew more American history when she became a citizen than I remembered. ;)

Dude, iSm... the Average Joe has a hard enough time remembering the words to the first verse, and you want them to master the entire song? I think it's a simple matter of expediency.

Just like the rest of the words for America the Beautiful are cool but nobody knows them:

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 impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
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 every gain divine!

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!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

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
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Awesome... but who can remember all that? Certainly not your "average" Joe.

We generally don't sing additional verses to Jingle Bells either. Which is a pity.

Now, in the great tradition of this thread, you must post them.








ETA: I knew only one of the additional America the Beautiful verses because it was featured as the finale to Disneyland's CircleVision America the Beautiful.

Me too... I knew the "Alabaster cities gleam" part (not memorized, but was aware) and found the rest when I went looking.