The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Cover of sheet music for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" published in Boston by Oliver Ditson & Co., 1862
"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]
History[change | change source]
Howe'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 | change source]
- 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 | change source]
- ↑ 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