Howe, Julia Ward (1819-1910) [Battle Hymn of the Republic]
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00496.033.02 Author/Creator: Howe, Julia Ward (1819-1910) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph manuscript signed Date: circa 1861-1910 Pagination: 2 p. ; 26.5 x 21.2 cm. Order a Copy
Transcript of all five stanzas.
Battle-hymn of the Republic.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
The Lord:
He is trampling through the vineyard where
the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his
terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on!
I have seen him in the watch fires of an 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.
[2] 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."
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[t]
my feet!
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.
Julia Ward Howe.
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