.
.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

The Lord doth come; the grapes of wrath are crushed!
Behold His fiery sword of Victory.
He heartens those whose voices have been hushed
To loudly shout our rage: “We shall be free!”
America, rise up! Look to the light.
Sing Glory Hallelujah, men, and fight!
.
Fight! Vindicate the valor of a people
Who’ve borne the mantle of this broken world.
Come gather in the squares, beneath each steeple
And thrill to see the Stars & Stripes unfurled.
America, be fearless and upright.
Let Glory Hallelujah prove God’s might!
.
Exalt the sacred rights for which we’ve fought.
We founded this great land on the belief
That freedom guards religion, speech and thought.
As tyrants try to blast our rights to grief,
America, don’t buckle at their spite!
Sing Hallelujah! Let your rage ignite!
.
We fought at Bunker Hill and Normandy;
At Gettysburg we died to free all men;
We’ve pledged our precious lives for liberty;
We’ve bled for sacred honor.  Shout Amen,
America, and stand up for what’s right!
Let Hallelujah echo through the night!
.
Pearl Harbor, 9-11… We’ve endured
Great tragedies and now we face rank treason.
They shout, “Death to our Land!” This can’t be cured,
For it means war! Fight back with faith and reason!
America, keep victory in sight!
Let Hallelujah curse those foes with blight.
.
And do not pity those who show disdain
For all the blessings of this sacred land.
Smug Death is all they vaunt in their campaign
To leave this country ruined and unmanned.
Let all who love America unite!
Shout Hallelujah. Sing out bold and bright!
.
For “We the people” built up this great land—
And watered it with blood and sweat and tears.
From Maine to California let us stand
Against all traitors. Cast away your fears,
America, and set your flame alight!
Sing Hallelujah from the highest height!
.
__Our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
__We have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
__A fractured future beckons which demands we raise a sword
__And kneel before the Lord as He unseals the seventh seal!
__The battle looms at last between pure evil and what’s right.
__America! Sing Glory Hallelujah—rise and fight!
.
.
.
.
Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals.  He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel  Bleeding Stone.  He lives in Wimauma, Florida.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


CODEC Stories:

34 Responses

  1. Phil S. Rogers

    I could never say enough good things about this poem, Brian. The perfect poem for July 4th to describe the terrible situation our country is in and what must happen to correct the situation. Unfortunately, I have to believe it will be pretty ugly, things have gone way too far.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you, Phil, for this amazing comment! I truly hope there’s a way for our country to come together, but… not by sacrificing moral clarity. As you point out things have indeed gone way too far. But I’m ever mindful that God is in charge.

      Reply
  2. Mark Stellinga

    Brian, this extremely passionate piece ignites a fury in my soul that, as you intend, induces a yearn for unbridled retribution, one I’m now convinced can only be accomplished with relentless, unmitigated force. GREAT post – -:)

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Mark! Well, if this poem has ignited a fury, it did its job! Righteous indignation seems to me the only rational reaction to so much of what is happening these days. I leave retribution to God. But I believe that we have moved forward into an age when we need more Churchills and fewer Chamberlains. Or, to keep period with the original Battle Hymn, more Lincolns and fewer Buchanans. Moral clarity matters.

      Reply
  3. Linda Fowler

    What a perfect, and perfectly executed poem of freedom’s fight. I so enjoyed reading this first thing this morning. It made me realize what a great country America can be and appreciate even more the sacrifices so many have made. Respect.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Linda, thank you so much for this generous assessment of my poem! America is an amazing country and may well still represent the world’s best chance for advancing all that is good about humanity. But we must get our house in order. It can no longer afford to be a house divided.

      Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Brian, that is a rousing rephrasing of “The Battle Hymn.” The greatness of your poem is overwhelming and more than praiseworthy. I feel fortunate to have read such a militarized declaration calling us to join in our own re-emacipation. The depth of passion is undeniable, and the clarion call is clear.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much for this, Roy! Especially coming after your own wonderful poem. You do, of course, approach my poem from extensive experience in the military. But I would not quite call my declaration as “militarized” other than in the sense of putting on our spiritual armor and, as you put it, joining in our own re-emancipation. While my poem relies heavily on respect for our military as did the original Battle Hymn of the Republic, I consider this a call to arms for spiritual warfare and the need to reestablish moral clarity in a frighteningly amoral world. I hope that literal warfare here is no more than a metaphor! Of course, these are troubling times. And it is not those of us on the right who screamed “Death to America.” That was a leftist phenomenon. That vile sentiment still exists on the left and that may indeed end up as their declaration of war for which we must be prepared.

      Reply
  6. Cynthia Erlandson

    Thank you, Brian, for this poem, and for your love for America!

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Cynthia! A love I know you share. Blessings on this Independence Day weekend!

      Reply
  7. Joseph S. Salemi

    This powerful poem is a call to arms, literally. Will that eventuality become real again, as it did in all of our other wars? Will we have to “praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,” as they used to put it? It’s hard to say at this point in time.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you, Joe, for this thought-provoking comment. I always envisioned this poem as a call to prepare for spiritual warfare. I hope it doesn’t happen, but times have become so unpredictable and violent that true fighting may well erupt. But that will be the fault of the “Death to America” left. The pro-Hamas occupiers, vandals, trespassers along with the other assorted leftist rioters crossed a line with those “Death to America” chants. This poem was written during the height of the university occupations and my hope was to write something to inspire normal, law-abiding people to grow a backbone and start standing up for what’s right, to stand up for America. People need to be reminded what this country is and could be and to make it happen. The bottom line: the silent majority, no matter how well-meaning, is irrelevant if they don’t speak up, push back, vote and, yes, fight.

      Reply
  8. ABB

    Enjoyed this thoroughly, Brian. You do a very good job here of maintaining a sincere and celebratory tone that, at the same time, doesn’t fall into sentimentalism. It’s a difficult thing to do, but you hit a home run with your lofty language that evokes the best patriotic anthems: ‘We’ve bled for sacred honor,’… ‘From Maine to California.’ The ‘Hallelujah’ repetition also highlights how religion is necessarily intermingled with patriotism, and when people lose faith in their God they also lose faith in their people. Your final stanza in heptameters, really hits home, rushing on without any caesuras until that final phrase of ‘rise and fight!’ An appropriate and brilliant capstone to the poem.

    After I finish editing Mike Solot’s translation of the Odyssey, I have in mind putting together an anthology of patriotic American verse that brings together figures past and present, from Emerson and the fireside poets to the present day. There is a large body of this wonderful stuff written from the 19th to the mid-20th century that, once widespread in old textbooks, has been systematically erased from the education system. Was thinking of capping the volume with some SCP folk to show a sense of continuity, and I think this piece would be perfect to include. Will have to work out royalties and still have to run it by Evan, but something to chew on.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Andrew, thank you so much for this detailed comment. I’m really pleased that you like the celebratory and patriotic aspects of this poem, and you’ve been very observant in noting some of the poem’s antecedents. Those heptameters were a conceptual struggle for me. Initially I thought I would write a literal, updated version of Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic which is in heptameters, but an entire poem mirrorying Howe was slightly ridiculous. And it also was greatly diminished to not have that “Glory, glory Hallelujah” chorus. So I decided to write an original poem in pentameter, turn the “America, stand up…” lines as something of a recurring theme and then pay homage to Howe’s original with only that last stanza, distilling her musicality and her message of spiritual victory and bringing it forward to the present.

      I love your idea of an anthology of American patriotic verse. Our country needs it! I would be so honored to have this poem included. That’s a high compliment indeed. Thank you for that, Andrew! And if you are indeed featuring historical poets, perhaps Julia Ward Howe’s original would be a good piece to include.

      Reply
  9. Jeff Eardley

    Brilliant Brian, what a great Independence Day poem this is. I wish we had the same passion over here as our election today will result in years of decline, decay and wokism under a Labour Party administration. Long live the spirit of your great nation and please, do something about that fellow Biden.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Jeff! I so appreciate your respect for passionate patriotism and am well aware of your own deep love and anxiety for the U.K. Both of our countries have much to fear these days. I hope and pray your new Labour Party administration will be restrained and sober in its governance and that the woke don’t end up running things. As for Biden… I’m trying, I’m trying!

      Reply
  10. Patricia Allred

    Hi Brian!
    Sorry, my friend to have missed tha win of a write. Wish the will to be strong and great
    Americans grows by the day.

    Merci, mon ami.
    PR

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Patricia! America’s desire to be strong and proud and a truly free nation is alive and growing stronger by the day. So many people now see the tyranny of leftism that has befuddled them for too long. Never again! Thank you for reading and commenting!

      Reply
  11. Yael

    Great poem for the 4th of July, happy Independence Day to you! I like how you included the seventh seal of Revelation in the last stanza, which I also believe will soon be unsealed for the world to see. Kneeling before Jehovah at that time should be a safe position.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Yael. The original Battle Hymn had some apocalyptic references from Revelation and, quite honestly, I feel like the modern world is far closer to the Final Judgment than our Civil War forebearers. Yes, we must kneel to the Lord even as we put on our spiritual armor and raise that figurative sword. Happy (late) Independence Day to you as well. Every day is a good day to celebrate freedom!

      Reply
  12. Margaret Coats

    Brian, your reliance on the backdrop of Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic easily enables you to create what is tamely called a “powerful” poem. It is more than that. As an earlier commentor has said, you induce a yearning for unbridled retribution with relentless, unmitigated force. It’s violent. And this is done recalling a noble but bloody history. It is a patriotic memorial. Still more. It is done in the name of God’s glory, whose time for action is now, against persons who are traitors to the nation and violators of sacred, divinely established rights. The poem is apocalyptic. It includes curses and blessings meant to justify some and damn others.

    Your Battle Hymn, Brian, is more aggressively expressed than Howe’s, in particular because it lacks anything like her final verse on the Incarnation and the glory in Christ’s bosom that transfigures you and me. That does not change her message. “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”

    I cannot help but think, as well, of two poems by William Cullen Bryant. Your hymn echoes even some of the words of “Our Country’s Call,” written by him in September 1861. In October 1864, the experience of civil war from a safe distance impelled him to write the beautiful “My Autumn Walk.” The topic is related, and the two poems are worth comparing to measure the impact of those three years on a poet’s outlook. His beliefs had not changed.

    Your work is unsettling, as I think you intended. Mission accomplished!

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Margaret, thank you so much for a comment which delves deep into the original Howe work as the close progenitor to my own. You understand precisely what I was aiming at. No, I did not write a piece to make people feel good. I wrote a piece to set forth some pretty damning facts about what America’s leftist enemies have perpetrated (especially the “Death to America” contingency) along with their demands for us to forget our values, morals and very history. To expose their battle plan is by its very nature unsettling and if my poem inspires people to open their eyes, react and refuse to collaborate in our nation’s destruction then my poem will have indeed advance what I intended.

      I have written what I hope is a call for people of good conscience to stop demonstrating weakness and to exercise moral clarity.

      You are very right to note the apocalyptic imagery, more inspired by, then borrowed from, Howe. The opening of the seals in Revelation in particular was my original contribution but one which seemed absolutely appropriate to me in a context where I do believe we are fast approaching the final battle between good and evil. My poem may seem “violent” but that is not actually my intent. My intent is for it to be rousing and call people to take a stand and put on their spiritual armor. The sword I reference is metaphoric, though directly linked to Howe’s “gospel writ in burnished rows of steel” which I quote directly from the original. As I mentioned to ABB above, that entire final stanza in heptameter is the only direct link to Julia Ward Howe’s original meter and the first two lines paraphrase two separate stanzas from her original.

      I purposely did not bring anything like the Christ/transformation language of Howe’s poem into my own because, though it would have softened the message and lent a transcendence to the piece, I felt it would have created a diversion from the overwhelmingly patriotic theme of the poem. But there is no question in my poem that respect for God is spotlighted front and center. He is featured prominently in several places, I advocate the joining of “faith and reason” as the patriot’s underlying values and the very word Hallelujah — much repeated — is Hebrew for “Praise the Lord.” In fact, the Hebrew word “Hallelujah” was the original inspiration for my idea of a rousing patriotic piece, even before I knew I would take inspiration from the Civil War anthem. This seemed a meaningful if subtle rebuke to much of the antisemitism associated with the “Death to America” crowds.

      Thank you again, Margaret, for your careful reading and thoughts. I will read the William Cullen Bryant poems that you cite — the message and progression you describe sound fascinating and apropos.

      Reply
  13. Enid Cokinos

    Brian, your passion and love of country shines through in this poem. Thank you for this perfect reminder of what the 4th of July is all about.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you very much indeed, Enid. Happy belated Independence Day!

      Reply
  14. Michael Vanyukov

    The usual fireworks we have here on the Independence Day were, I guess, cancelled yesterday— because of a heavy rain. Well, your poem, Brian, fully replaces them for me. Hallelujah indeed. Amen.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Thank you so much, Michael! I wish my literary fireworks had not been necessary and that you and I could have enjoyed a simple fireworks display for an unthreatened America. But, alas, that was not to be. America is threatened and the spirit and valor behind the theme of “Glory, Hallelujah” is needed. Happy belated Fourth!

      Reply
  15. James Sale

    Powerful stuff, Brian; I think I said before, so it’s worth repeating: you really ought to be America’s Poet Laureate if there were any justice (which of course, there is not!).

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Oh my gosh, James, you are making me blush! Thank you for this lavishly kind comment. I’m really glad you liked the poem. And if Justice existed (which, you’re right, does not) the poem would never have been needed. James, I’m praying now for both of our countries. God bless the U.K. as well as the U.S.A.

      Reply
      • James Sale

        Yea, God bless us: we’ve just lurched to the Left for no reason other than the complete incompetence of the Right! Great to see you having a great holiday in Thailand – my eldest son and 3 granddaughters live there, so it’s a favourite country of mine!

      • Brian A. Yapko

        Keeping prayers active for the U.K. Maybe it will turn out better than expected.

        I wish I was in Thailand, James! My photos of the Buddist Wat on Facebook are from a temple here in Tampa! I’ve been to Thailand however, and the terrain and climate are remarkably similar to Florida! Your son and his family are lucky. It is indeed a wonderful, charming, welcoming place!

  16. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Brian, I know how tough it is to write a patriotic poem for Independence Day as freedoms are being stripped from “we the people” daily. You have done a magnificent job in getting a grave point across without losing sight of the wonder of this country – no easy task.

    Your poem (with its respectful nod to this mighty hymn from the Civil War) harks back to an era of vim and valor – a time in which people fought for their God-given rights in the name of their Maker. In an age where our culture is being torn to shreds and burned before our very eyes, this poem reminds every American of where they came from, who they are, and the courage it took to fight for independence from tyrannical rule… and we certainly need reminding before all is lost.

    Thank you for doing it so boldly and so beautifully.

    Reply
    • Brian A. Yapko

      Susan, thank you so much for this generous and insightful comment about the difficulty of writing patriotically and celebrating freedom when so much is wrong, not just in the U.S. but throughout the West. Our culture is indeed being torn to shreds and, what really disheartens me is the fact that people do not know history — or they have learned a fabricated history, which is actually far worse because they now move forward based on premises that were never true. When you can rewrite history in this manner to suit ideology, any number of atrocities becomes possible, even by people acting in good faith who are relying on misinformation and propaganda. May we always remember where we came from, may we always understand the forces of darkness which seek to obliterate truth to promote their hateful ideologies, may we always stand up to bullies and may we always bear witness as best we can to truths based on evidence-based reality rather than prejudice and resentment. All is not lost, but we must not shrink from fighting for what is right.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Captcha loading...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.