Our ransomed dust, reviv-ed, bright beauties shall put on,
And soar to the blest mansions where our Redeemer’s gone.
Our eyes shall then with rapture, the Savior’s face behold;
Our feet, no more diverted, shall walk the streets of gold.
Our ears shall hear with transport the hosts celestial sing;
Our tongues shall chant the glories of our immortal King.
William Walker, compiler of the SOH, claims the tune. A recent variant of it, orally transmitted, is ‘[O I’m So Happy]’, in this collection. Another variant here is ‘[Stephens]’. All these tunes seem to derive from an old one recorded in Kilrush, Ireland, and found in the Petrie collection in two variants, Nos. 167 and 283. Compare also the similar ‘[Hallelujah]’ tune family with its members listed under the tune by that title in this collection.
The text is by John Leland and was uniquely popular—as sung in its purity or associated with various refrains and revival choruses—during the early part of the nineteenth century. The negroes have borrowed freely from this poem in making the texts for their spirituals, especially from the fourth and fifth stanzas. Cf. WS 217ff. and 286.
No. 60
[GREEN FIELDS], SOH 71
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)