Julie Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA have deep meanings of patriotism. By comparing the two songs you can find different interpretations to patriotism. Springsteen shows patriotism as something that you don't need to fight for, while Howe shows it as something you have to fight your hardest to preserve. They both however discuss values associated with patriotism. Howe shows her view of patriotism as coming through god, while Springsteen shows it as something that fighting for would do nothing to help. Through their different ways and ideas, they both create songs that inspire and relate to peoples opinions during tough times like war.

Both of these songs are in patriotic tunes, with the intention of coming off as a nationalistic or patriotic song. However, by analyzing the lyrics and meaning of the song, differences in what they talk about and what the authors view on patriotism become apparent. Springsteen talks about being from and living a normal life in the USA. He says, "got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand" (Born in the USA), which refers to an example of someone who gets in trouble with the law, and because of it is forced to fight in this war that he was not a part of. He goes on to say, "send me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man" (Born in the USA). This turns out to be our first hint that he is talking about the Vietnam War and the military draft that took place. Howe has a different interpretation of war in her song. She goes, "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fatal lightning of his terrible swift sword." (Battle Hymn of the Republic)  This song alludes more to the authors belief in god, and how she believed it was god doing the work of the Union, who righteously deserved to be on god's side rather than the rebels. Other examples in her hymn relating to god and the bible are placed everywhere in the story, "Terrible swift sword  I have seen Him  building Him an alter  read a fiery gospel  crush the serpent with his heel  Since God is marching on" (Battle Hymn of the Republic). These were just a few of the many relations to Christianity in the hymn.

Although the melody and tune of Springsteen's Born in the USA is patriotic sounding and uplifting, it actually discusses the harsh reality of war, especially the Vietnam War and how it impacted everyone involved. The song starts off with a kid who grows up and gets in trouble with the law as a young man. Because of this, they pick him for the draft and send him to Vietnam to fight. He returns home only to find that he can't get a job, and ends up with nothing to do. It also discusses some of the loss that people had, like their brothers and sons and leaving loved ones behind after the war. The lyrics are somewhat sad, and make the song a definite anti-war song, different from its patriotic melody. Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic however, discusses a different story related to war and how people felt. She talks about some of her personal experiences in the hymn. She says how she has, "seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps" (Battle Hymn of the Republic), which is about how she saw all of the Union fires at their campsite. Rather than a story she has a collection of patriotic and metaphorical ideas, which could be used to rally troops and motivate support. She talks about the Rebels as a serpent that they must crush with their heel, and sounding a trumpet to continue forward and never retreat (Battle Hymn of the Republic). If you were to compare the two songs on how they were viewed and listened to by troops, Battle Hymn of the Republic would inspire troops to fight and die for their country, while as Born in the USA would only inspire troops to realize the harsh reality of their situation in Vietnam.

To understand these two songs, it is important to realize the historical context of their writing. Battle Hymn of the Republic was written during the Civil War, where patriotism and the idea to fight for ones country's survival was important. Songs were written to rally the troops, and god was a major source of inspiration for many soldiers to fight. The only way to hear music was live, and songs were often spread around through listening and repeating what they heard. This style of song could be chanted and sung in large groups of people like soldiers, with lyrics that were catchy and could be remembered to be chanted. There was a completely different style of song later with new technology. Springsteen's Born in the USA was a rock song to be listened to on the radio or on a record. It could be spread more easily, which allowed anti-war songs like this to grow and spread around. Vietnam was not a popular war and people didn't know why we were fighting it. Popular opinion was against the war, and at the time people were seemingly unpatriotic because of it. The reason for the patriotic tune of the song was to show the fact that being anti-war did not mean that someone could not be just as patriotic.

Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic wasn't a completely original song. It was to the tune of Oh! Brother and John Brown's Body, and just changed the words. It was a popular tune at the time, and had a style that is very reminiscent of the Civil War. Most songs written during the time sounded similar to this, and it was the music people played during the Civil War. Times changed and so did music, so when Born in the USA came out the style of most music was different. It had an original tune and lyrics, but was in a rock style that was popular during the Vietnam War. Both songs were written for their time with the purpose of gaining popularity, but also to send a message. Howe's song gave a message to keep fighting and never surrender, while Springsteen's message was against the war and fighting this unnecessary conflict. Howe had certain poetic styles in her song, like rhyme and rhythm. Every line in each stanza has its own rhyme like "Lord, stored, sword," and "camps, damps, lamps" (Battle Hymn of the Republic). Springsteen's song was written to its tune, and would sound odd without it. It does not have a rhyme, but has some repetition with lines like "Born in the USA" (Born in the USA). The songs had completely different styles, but both involved patriotism and life as an American during war.

When Battle Hymn of the Republic came out, it was expected to be for the war and for the Union if someone was living in the North. People often believed that god was on their side, just like in the song. An example of this is at the end, "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on" (Battle Hymn of the Republic). It would give soldiers courage to tell them that god was on their side and would help alongside them for their cause. Springsteen has another objective when he is advocating against the war, and that was to show what the Vietnam War was really like. He talked about loss and how hopeless everything becomes. People would listen to this and agree with his argument against the war. When the war was still going on years earlier people protested and the war never really had much public support, so when Springsteen sung about its harshness, it gained a lot of popularity.

By comparing Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, we can get a deeper understanding of the patriotism both songs were trying to show. With their different styles in song, and different messages trying to be shown, they both side with the popular opinion of their time. Many of the cultural ideas at the time are shown in each song, and things like god and anti-war are the focus. We can better understand one view of patriotism like this from looking at another example, so analyzing these songs side by side leads to a good comparison.

