VOA标准英语2013--探索《共和国战歌》历史的一本书

 

Book Explores Roundabout History of 'Battle Hymn¹ of the Republic' 探索《共和国战歌》历史的一本书

 

Though the Battle Hymn of the Republic is more than 150 years old, it is still embraced by Americans of all political persuasions².  According to Ben Soskis, co-author of a new book about the song, that’s because it speaks to a particularly American sensibility.

“The idea that America has the providential responsibility to help bring the world into a realm of perfect peace and to bring freedom to the world,” he said.

That’s not how the song started out. It had a meandering³ path to become the iconic anthem⁴ it is today.

“As far as we know, it can be traced back to an early Camp Meeting Revival⁵ hymnal in 1806,” Soskis said of the song “On Canaan’s Happy Shore.”

“It had the 'Glory, glory, Hallelujah’ chorus,” he said.

Fifty years later, during the Civil War, the Canaan song was popular with a group of Northern solders⁶ in Boston who had a man in their unit named John Brown - the same name as the famous abolitionist who had been hanged after trying to start a slave uprising in 1859.  The men in the unit liked to tease Brown about having such a famous name.

“They would say ‘Oh, there goes John Brown.’  And somebody else would say, ‘I thought John Brown was dead.’  And another would say, ‘Oh, but he's still marching on,’” Soskis said.

Eventually, Soskis says, the men turned their teasing jokes into a song.  The tune⁷ they picked was “Canaan's Happy Shore.’”  Over time, the song, “John Brown’s Body” became "probably the most popular marching song of the Union cause,” he said.

In the early days of the American Civil War, poet Julia Ward⁸ Howe visited Washington, D.C. with some fellow dignitaries. Outside the city she got stuck on a road jammed with soldiers.  To bide⁹ time, Soskis says, the Union troops were singing a rowdy version of, "John Brown's Body."  

“Her minister was sitting beside her and turns to her and says, ‘Julia, you know you really should write some decent words to that song,’” he said.

She went back to her hotel, he said, and woke in the middle of the night …“With the words literally¹⁰ marching in her head,” Soskis said.

After the Civil War, there were many who pushed to make the Battle Hymn of the Republic the country's national anthem.  That movement failed, largely because southerners hated the northern song’s tone of moral triumph.

“Its lyrics¹² a call to crush the Confederates as one would a serpent under one's heel,” Soskis said.

Over the decades, though, the serpent verses were discretely¹³ dropped and the song was embraced even in the South. New lyrics would be written for new causes by activists¹⁴ who felt not only that "truth was marching on,” but that it was marching on their side.

America’s early labor¹⁵ movement adopted the tune. John Steinbeck’s anti-poverty novel, “The Grapes of Wrath” took its title from the song. The Battle Hymn was sung during the Civil Rights Movement. And the last words Martin Luther King, Jr. ever spoke¹⁶ in public were from Julia Ward Howe’s lyric¹¹.

“I’m not fearing any man!  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” King said in Memphis on April 3, 1968.   

Soskis says the song endures because, for better or worse, it speaks to America’s sense of itself as a country with a mission.

“No song captures it better than the Battle Hymn,” he said. 

1 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

2 persuasions   

n.劝说，说服（力）( persuasion的名词复数 )；信仰

参考例句：

• To obtain more advertisting it needed readers of all political persuasions. 为获得更多的广告，它需要迎合各种政治见解的读者。 来自辞典例句
• She lingered, and resisted my persuasions to departure a tiresome while. 她踌躇不去，我好说歹说地劝她走，她就是不听。 来自辞典例句

3 meandering   

蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天

参考例句：

• The village seemed deserted except for small boys and a meandering donkey. 整个村子的人都像是逃光了，只留下了几个小男孩和一头正在游游荡荡的小毛驴。 来自教父部分
• We often took a walk along the meandering river after supper. 晚饭后我们常沿着那条弯弯曲曲的小河散步。

4 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

5 revival   

n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振

参考例句：

• The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
• He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。

6 solders   

n.焊料，焊锡( solder的名词复数 )v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• We fused the pipes with solders. 我们用焊锡熔接管子。 来自辞典例句
• Solders ate a great number of potatoes during World War II. 第二次世界大战期间的士兵吃了很多的土豆。 来自互联网

7 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

8 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

9 bide   

v.忍耐；等候；住

参考例句：

• We'll have to bide our time until the rain stops.我们必须等到雨停。
• Bide here for a while. 请在这儿等一会儿。

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 lyric   

n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的

参考例句：

• This is a good example of Shelley's lyric poetry.这首诗是雪莱抒情诗的范例。
• His earlier work announced a lyric talent of the first order.他的早期作品显露了一流的抒情才华。

12 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

13 discretely   

分离地，离散地

参考例句：

• The mesh is the outcome of discretely decomposing the continuous space. 网格是对连续空间进行离散剖分的结果。
• The sensitive flesh must choose the product which discretely these mark sensitive flesh may use. 敏感型肌肤也要谨慎挑选那些标明敏感肌肤可以使用的产品。

14 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

16 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。