The Snowflake Chronicles

Bonus challenge: my favorite song.

10 Nur 163 B.E. – June 13 – 14, 2006 A.D.

I wonder what the weather was like that day in 1861 when Julia Ward Howe stood listening to Union soldiers singing John Brown’s Body. The experience of the song and the troops affected her deeply. The next morning she wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Her own words concerning the writing of the poem speaks directly to the soul of the poet and the lover in me:

“I awoke in the grey of the morn¬ing, and as I lay wait¬ing for dawn, the long lines of the de¬sired po¬em be¬gan to en¬twine them¬selves in my mind, and I said to my¬self, “I must get up and write these vers¬es, lest I fall asleep and for¬get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim¬ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re¬mem¬bered us¬ing the day be¬fore. I scrawled the vers¬es al¬most with¬out look¬ing at the p¬aper.” (Julie Ward Howe)

This is the first song I learned by heart. This song speaks to the mystic poet, speak of the beloved (not matter by what name GOD is called). As I listen to it, the thought comes to me that this is the marching song of Armageddon. Which may seem odd, since this song written, as it was, long before World War I (the war to end all wars) and World War II, long before humanity understood the true terror of war and weapons that could destroy whole cities at a time?

Another thought just came to me; this is also a song of peace. The song of my Beloved and my beloved is the Glory of God. This song speaks directly to my spirit, the song that encourages me to work for the peace and unity of humanity. The congregation in the Southern Baptist Church of my childhood sang this song. This song taught me to love God and to love Christ, and even though my religion has changed my love for Christ and for God has not changed. My faith has taken on a world embracing love for the founders of all religions and for humanity.

I want bagpipes to play this song at my funeral. The version I’m listening to, right now, is played on a piano not bagpipes. The piano doesn’t do this song justice, the Battle Hymn of the Republic was meant to be played on bagpipes. The pipes give this song an entirely new feeling; listening to this song on the pipes is much more emotional and soul cleansing. Tears come quicker to my eyes when I experience this song played on bagpipes.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

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.
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.
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.
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.
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 live to make men free;
[originally …let us die to make men free]
While God is marching on.
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 honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

The history surrounding the Battle Hymn of the Republic is interesting, but what’s even more intriguing is that very few people remember or know that this is the tune to John Brown’s Body. When this music is play, almost, everybody thinks of the words to Julie Ward Howe’s song rather than the words to the original song. Today this song brings to mind soldiers gathered around campfires on a civil war battlefield rather than an American abolitionist who died at Harper’s Fairy.

As I listen to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, I wonder what other songs and poems humanity will take with it, as it passes from a planet ruled by nation-states into the unified planet the future holds for us. I suspect that humanity will take this song with it both into the future and to other planets. The present chaos will give way to peace and unity. Moreover, we will “live to make men free” rather than “die to make men free.”

I wonder of Julia Ward Howe realized that her poem written on an early more in 1861 in a Union camp on the Potomac River was so powerful.

References

Howe, Julie W., (1981). The battle hymn of the republic found on the cyber hymnal. Downloaded Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 8:28:30 AM PST from http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/h/bhymnotr.htm.