Some of the old versions have been posted.
I Am A Pilgrim, 42490: Pilgrim
Thread #42490 Message #620679
Posted By: Dicho
03-Jan-02 - 09:02 PM
Thread Name: hymn stories?
Subject: Lyr Add: I'M A PILGRIM
Wayfaring Stranger - The song appears under the title I'm a Pilgrim, No. 45 on p. 43, in The Southern Zion's Songster, 1864, Raleigh, NC.
First verse and chorus:
I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry but a night,
Do not detain me, for I am going,
To where the fountains are ever flowing.
There the glory is ever shining!
O, my longing heart, my longing heart is there,
Here in this country so dark and dreary,
I long have wandered forlorn and weary.
I'm a pilgrim, etc.
There's the city to which I journey;
My Redeemer, my redeemer is its light,
There is no sorrow nor any sighing,
Nor any tears there, nor any dying.
I'm a pilgrim, etc.
Farewell, dreary earth, by sin so blighted,
In immortal beauty soon you'll be arrayed!
He who has formed thee will soon restore thee!
And then thy dread curse shall never more be.
I'm a pilgrim, etc.
Note that there is no chorus about going over Jordan; I'm a pilgrim and a stranger is the 1st line of the chorus here. The references are indeed confusing. The Sacred Harp 1844 reference in the ballad Index, Univ. California-Fresno is probably an error.
The Southern Zion's Songster is reproduced in its entirety on the Univ. North Carolina website http//docsouth.unc.edu/imls/zion/zion.html
Thread #42490 Message #620715
Posted By: Dicho
03-Jan-02 - 10:48 PM
Thread Name: hymn stories?
Subject: Lyr Add: I'M A PILGRIM
In "Hymns For the Camp," 1862 2nd ed. rev. and enl., p. 124, a slightly different version of I'm A Pilgrim appears. This hymn seems to have been a favorite in the South during the War Between the States. Does it appear in Northern hymnals of that time, for use by soldiers, as well?
I'M A PILGRIM
I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry but a night.
Do not detain me, for I am going
To where the rivers are ever flowing.
There the sunbeams are ever shining;
I am hoping for the sight,
Within a country unknown and dreary
I have been wandering, forlorn and weary.
Of the country to which I'm going,
My redeemer is the light;
There is no sorrow nor any sighing,
Nor any sinning nor any dying.
I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry but a night.
Published by the General Tract Agency, Raleigh, NC, for the Confederate Soldiers.
This hymn book is reprinted in its entirety in the Univ. NC website, Documenting the South, docsouth.unc.edu/hymns/hymns.html#hymns123
Wayfaring Stranger, 23495: Stranger
Thread #23495 Message #620773
Posted By: Dicho
04-Jan-02 - 01:45 AM
Thread Name: Req/ADD: I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger
Subject: Lyr Add: THE PILGRIM SONG (WAYFARING STRANGER)
THE PILGRIM SONG (WAYFARING STRANGER)
I am a poor wayfaring stranger,
While journeying through this world of woe;
But there is no sickness, toil, no danger,
In that bright world to which I go.
I'm going there to see my classmates,
They said they'd meet me when I come;
I'm just a going over Jordan,
I'm just going over home.
I know dark clouds'll gather 'round me,
I know my road is rough and steep;
Yet there bright fields are lying just before me,
Where God's redeemed their vigils keep.
I'm going there to see my mother,
She said she'd meet me when I come;
I'm just going over Jordan,
I'm just a going over home.
I'll soon be free from every trial,
My body will sleep in the old churchyard.
I'll quit the cross of self-denial,
And enter in my great reward.
I'm going there to see my mother, etc.
(Repeat verse 4)
The Negro and His Songs, H. W. Odum and G. B. Johnson, 1925, Univ. North Carolina Press (reprint by Negro Universities Press, 1968 etc.), p. 137-138.
The Pilgrim's Song "may be called a standard hymn of the Negroes. There is a story that Bishop Allen, the founder of the African M. E. Church, composed the song on his dying bed." "While the sadly hopeful words of the song are of a higher type than the average spiritual, and while its metrical form is far above the usual, the song still combines many of the ideas and phrases of the favorite spirituals of the slaves."
Whether this story of the song's authorship is seemingly not verifiable, this version is probably as close to a "Negro" version of the song as we will get. In the hymn books of the white South (posted in another thread) are different versions, dates 1862 and 1864. I will try and check the date of Bishop Allen's death.
@religion @hymn @spiritual
Words attributed to Merle Travis are in the DT, no date or source. He released it on a Capitol recording in 1947, "Folk Songs of the Hills." Earlier one??