Inspired Songs

This is a list of "inspired songs" - songs that resulted from a moment of unique inspiration to the author:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Written by Julia W. Howe during the Civil War, it was the product of an inspiration that awoke her before dawn:

"I awoke in the grey of the morn­ing, and as I lay wait­ing for dawn, the long lines of the de­sired po­em be­gan to en­twine them­selves in my mind, and I said to my­self, “I must get up and write these vers­es, lest I fall asleep and for­get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim­ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re­mem­bered us­ing the day be­fore. I scrawled the vers­es al­most with­out look­ing at the p­aper.

The Star Spangled Banner

Lyrics written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during the Battle of Baltimore.

America the Beautiful

Written by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893, after a train trip to Colorado Springs. The words of the song came to her as she stood atop Pikes Peak.