How sin and Satan both did try
To land my soul in misery.
The full text is reproduced in White Spirituals, 186f. The tune is closely related to ‘McAfee’s Confession’, Sharp, ii., 15 and 16. John Powell notes in connection with this song: “I have collected this tune often as ‘Young People Who Delight in Sin’ and it is always mixolydian.” He then makes the suggestion: “Why not take out the g-sharp from the signature? In that case the modal indication would be heptatonic mixolydian, mode 3 a + b (I II III IV V VI 7).”
No. 10
[DYING CALIFORNIAN], OSH 410
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
Lay up nearer, brother, nearer,
For my limbs are growing cold,
And thy presence seemeth nearer,
When thine arms around me fold.