My latest sun is sinking fast

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Haruo's picture

The text authority for this hymn had the refrain containing the words "Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings / To my eternal home". I just changed this to read "Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings / To my [own] immortal home" on the grounds that of the dozens of page scans, not one has "my eternal"; they all have either "my immortal" or, in three cases where the tune is not the usual one by Bradbury, but another by a J. W. Dadmun, "my own immortal". I explained this under "Notes" and also noted the fact that through the folk process "snowy" has become "snow white" in some recordings of the song. I hope these are useful and appropriate edits. If there are any early witnesses supporting "eternal", I'd like to learn of them.


Comments

On further study, I see that the differences between the refrain texts of the Dadmun and Bradbury versions go somewhat further than just the presence of "own" in the former. The Dadmun refrain reads

Oh, come, angel band,
Around me stand;
I come, behold, I come,
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings
To my own immortal home;
To my own immortal home.

I will do my best at some point to make this all clear on the text page, unless someone else beats me to it. Now that I've heard it, I rather like the Dadmun tune, and I think I'll sing it tomorrow night at Seattle Song Circle.