Battle-Hymn of the Republic

 Julia Ward Howe. 1819–1911

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.