O hasten on that happy day,
When I must leave this clod of clay,
And soar aloft o’er yon blest plain
And there meet Mary and my Jane.
The song is attributed in the Social Harp to Wm. C. Davis. The first stanza was evidently inspired by the lines in the traditional English ballad entitled ‘Giles Collins’, Sharp, i., 196, which reads:
Look away, look away, that lonesome dove
That sails from pine to pine;
It’s mourning for its own true love
Just like I mourn for mine.
Four recently recorded (1917 and 1918) variants of the ‘Newberry’ tune, with one stanza of text each are in Sharp, ii., 197f. See also JAFL, xxv., 276. ‘Lonesome Dove’, Thomas, 162, has the same text but a different tune. ‘[Heavenly Dove]’ in this collection is a variant tune, but it is more closely related to the ‘Barbara Allen’ tune in Sharp, i., 183ff. ‘Newberry’ belongs to the ‘Lord Lovel’ type of tune mentioned in the Introduction, [p. 14]. Other melodies of the same type are listed under ‘[Dulcimer]’ in this collection.