The Story of the Battle Hymn of the RepublicHall, Florence Howe
History
The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic
Hall, Florence Howe
Battle hymn of the republic (Song); Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910. Battle hymn of the Republic
The “Battle Hymn” soon found its way from the pages of the _Atlantic
Monthly_ into the newspapers, thence to army hymn-books and broadsides.
It has been printed over and over again, in a great variety of forms,
sometimes with the picture of the author, as in the Perry prints. A
white silk handkerchief now in my possession bears the line,
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
worked in red embroidery silk.
My mother was called upon to copy the poem times without number. While
she was very willing to write a line or even, upon occasion, a verse
or two, she objected very decidedly, especially in her later years,
to copying the whole poem. Always responsive to the requests of the
autograph fiend, she felt that so much should not be asked of her. For
it naturally took time and trouble to make the fair copy that came up
to her standard. It was with some difficulty that I persuaded her to
send a promised copy to Edmund Clarence Stedman, for his collection.
“But mamma, you _said_ you would write it out for him.”
With a roguish twinkle, she replied, “Yes, but I did not say _when_.”
However, the verses were duly executed and sent to the banker-poet.
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has been translated into Spanish,
Italian, Armenian, and doubtless other languages. New tunes have been
composed for it, but they have failed of acceptance. My mother dearly
loved music and was a trained musician, hence her choice of a tune was
no haphazard selection. She wrote her poem to the “John Brown” air and
they cannot be divorced.
I have been so fortunate as to secure from Franklin B. Sanborn an
account of the origin of the words and music of the “John Brown” song.
Mr. Sanborn, biographer of Thoreau, John Brown, and others, is the last
survivor of the brilliant group of writers belonging to the golden age
of New England literature.
CONCORD, MASS., _1916_.
DEAR MRS. HALL--I investigated quite thoroughly the air to which the
original John Brown folk song was set;...
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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