History and song

[brainwane]

Today I learned:

* that "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was a riff on "John Brown's Body"
* the final verse of Julia Ward Howe's version and, simultaneously, (my inference of) why it is nearly never sung, because that penultimate line makes me go "eughhhhhh":

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.

I also saw a footnote that I find hilarious: on the Wikisource page, "As He died to make men holy, let us die[1] to make men free" has a note [1] saying:

Often "die" is changed to "live".

I find this really funny.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

I share your shudder and your wry appreciation.

Life, death, it's all the same, eh?

[cuddyclothes]

Oh, I dunno, some people would be way more free if certain people died.

[altamira16]

That line is really interesting because by changing "die" to "live," they are erasing the resurrection which is pretty foundational in all the new-testament Christianity stuff.

Without the resurrection, there would be no Church, right?

amaebi, is my understanding of this close enough?