Lyr. Add: Tossed and Driven

Miss Leone Duvall, MO, 1926 (Heard about 1895)

Sometimes I'm tossed and driven,
Sometimes I know not where to roam,
I've heard of a city called Heaven,
I've started to make it my home.

My mother has went before me,
My father's still walkin' in sin,
My brothers an' sisters won't own me,
Because I have tried to get in.

Lyr. Add: The Poor Pilgrim

I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow,
I am left in this wide world to roam,
I have no hope of tomorrow,
I've started to make Heaven my home.

Sometimes I'm so tossed an' driven,
Sometimes I know not where to roam,
I've heard of a city called heaven,
I've started to make it my home.

I've left my wife an' dear children
To preach wherever I'm called,
To work for my dear Savior,
He has promised to take me in.

My mother has reached that bright city,
My father's still walkin' in sin,
My brothers and sisters won't own me,
Because I am tryin' to get in.

The old ship is now fast approachin',
The captain is callin' my name,
I'm lookin' for my dear Savior,
Who promised to take me in.

Mrs. Allie Reed, Elkins, Arkansas, 1930. "Parents sang it in church about 1890".
Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, vol. 4, pp. 43-45, no. 610, "Tossed and Driven." Music given.

No thread has been started on this song. Versions occur in thread 42490, hymn stories?: Hymn Stories
It is both confused with and intermixed with, "The Lone Stranger," "Wayfaring Stranger," and "Trampin'," ("Traveling").

"Poor Pilgrim" appears in Dett, Religious Folk-songs of the Negro, and is considered by some to be a spiritual (so listed in the Cleveland index). Its frequency in white gospel, and parallels with "Wayfaring Stranger" suggest to me that its origin is in the white churches (Old Baptist, Sacred harp, old white songsters).

Starting a new thread, I hope, will not add to the confusion, but I believe a sort is possible.

See version posted by Kytrad in thread 63703, "Tryin' to Make Heaven My Home." Tryin' to Make Heaven