Friday, February 2, 2018

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe

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.  
  
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.  
  
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:  
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, 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.