Subject: RE: What the heck is this word (Beautiful Light o'er..
From:
Helen
Date: 29 Apr 16 - 09:13 PM
I did a bit of a search on the Wings of an angel/ wings of a dove lines:
I found this page:
Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook
for a song called Seven Long Years, which has the following two lines:
If I had the wings of an angel,
Or like the wings of a dove,
SEVEN LONG YEARS
For a vanation of this song see Campbell and Sharp, p. 256; Eddy, No 68, text D; and Fuson, p. 118.
The present version was communicated in 1916 by Miss Louise Griffiths, a student in Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti; she obtained it from Miss Florence Ott, Halltown, West Virginia, who had learned it from school children.
1 O seven long years I've been married;
I wish. I had died an old maid,
For now I see nothing but trouble.
My husband won't work at his trade.
Chorus
Beautiful light o'er the ocean,
Beautiful light o'er the sea,
Beautiful light o'er the ocean,
My love, I am waiting for thee.
2 I have to go down to the barroom
And get him home if I can.
Young girls, you see nothing but trouble
When once you are tied to a man.
3 I have to get up in the morning,
Work hard and toil all the day;
At night I have to get supper
And put the dear children to bed.
4 If I had listened to mother,
I wouldn't have been here today;
But I was so young and so foolish,
I had to have my own way.
5 If I had the wings of an angel,
Or like the wings of a dove,
I'd fly across the wide ocean
And light in the arms of my love.
The line also reminded me of a verse in:
Botany Bay - Oz traditional song
Oh had I the wings of a turtle dove
I'd soar on my pinions so high
Slap bang to the arms of my Polly love
And in her sweet presence I'd die
I always wondered why that line is common in folk songs, but in my search I discovered that it is also a line from Psalm 55 in the Bible.
(Sorry, I never did much Bible reading in my younger days, otherwise I probably would have known that.)
|
sj
