The Battle Hymn of the Republic
American patriotic song written by Julia Ward Howe
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" outside of the United States), is a song by American writer and poet Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910).[1]
Cover of sheet music for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" published in Boston by Oliver Ditson & Co., 1862
History
changeHowe's lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862.[2] She was paid $4.00 for the song.[2] It is based on the music from the song "John Brown's Body".[1] It was made famous by Charles Cardwell McCabe, a Union Army chaplain during the American Civil War.[3] He sang it in front of President Abraham Lincoln who stood and asked to hear it a second time.[3] It quickly became the unofficial anthem of the Union.[3] Since that time, it has become a popular and well-known American patriotic song.
Lyrics
change- Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
- He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
- He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
- His truth is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- His truth is marching on.
- I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
- They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
- I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
- His day is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- His day is marching on.
- I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
- "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal";
- Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
- Since God is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Since God is marching on.
- He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
- He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
- Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
- Our God is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Our God is marching on.
- In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
- With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
- As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
- While God is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- While God is marching on.
- He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
- He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
- So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
- Our God is marching on.
- (Chorus)
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah!
- Glory, glory, hallelujah.
- Our God is marching on.
References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 William Emmett Studwell, The National and Religious Song Reader: Patriotic, Traditional, and Sacred Songs from Around the World (Binghamton, NY: 1996), p. 15
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Albert A. Nofi, The Civil War Treasury (New York: Castle Books, 2006), p. 193
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Donald Vaughan, The Everything Civil War Book: Everything You Need to Know About the War that Divided the Nation (Holbrook, MA: Adams Media, 2000), p. 41