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-Short Attention Span Theater- |
Mark Steyn on "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" |
2007-05-21 |
In America, Memorial Day is just ahead – or Decoration Day, if you’re a real old-timer, a day for decorating the graves of the Civil War dead. The songs many of those soldiers marched to are still known today – “The Yellow Rose Of Texas”, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, “Dixie”. But this one belongs in a category all its own:Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord Henry Steele Commager called it “the one great song to come out of the Civil War, the one great song ever written in America”. Whether or not that’s true, most of us understand it has a depth and a power beyond most formal national songs. . . . RTWT |
Posted by:Mike |
#3 I especially like the seldom-heard 3rd verse, virtually banned today for its non-PC militancy and the relative obscurity of the term "contemners." 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. |
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2007-05-21 22:19 |
#2 It is said that John Phillip Sousa wrote "Stars and Stripes Forever" in much the same way. He was on a steamship with the Marine Corps Band and the tune just flooded into and through him. |
Posted by: Seafarious 2007-05-21 22:19 |
#1 I have a book of spoooooky stuff called Stranger Than Science, by Frank Edwards, who was also host of an eponymous radio show, back before I was born. Edwards was apparently the Art Bell of his day. Many of these little items were known even then to be purest hogwash, but Edwards was a stirring writer, and I still enjoy reading them. In the daytime. With the lights on. Anyhow, this is what Edwards has to say about "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", in a chapter titled, "The Song That Wrote Itself".
Edwards claims that Howe said the song "wrote itself". She probably meant that she had an unusual bout of inspiration, but Edwards spookifies it into divine intervention. |
Posted by: Angie Schultz 2007-05-21 17:56 |