the battle hymn of the republic

The Battle Hymn of the Republic is a patriotic anthem written by Julia Ward Howe for the United States during the American Civil War as a variation for the words to the marching song John Brown's Body. It was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February, 1862. The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated (1901), was Mark Twain's mocking parody of the below lyrics, inspired by then-recent events of the Spanish and Philippine Wars. In 1960, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir won the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus at the that year's awards ceremony with a recording that replaced the line "let us die to make men free" with the less morbid "let us 'live' to make men free", a variation that has since caught on to some extent. It is often regarded as the northern counterpart to "Dixie". One version of the melody, in C major, begins: This is an example of the mediant-octave modal frame.

Lyrics

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!

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

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

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

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, (sometimes "let us 'live' to make men free")

While God is marching on.

Chorus

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honour to the brave;

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,

Our God is marching on.

Chorus

The Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1862. (available to subscribers only)

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