No. 172 Bowers or Happy Souls (B), Soc 82
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
My soul’s full of glory,
Inspiring my tongue,
Could I meet with angels,
I’d sing them a song;
I’d sing of my Jesus
And tell of his charms,
And beg them to bear me
To his loving arms.
To his loving arms,
To his loving arms;
And beg them to bear me
To his loving arms.
John G. McCurry places his name as composer at the top of the page where this song is found in the Social Harp and dates it 1852. A note at the bottom says: “This tune was arranged as sung by William Bowers, Eagle Grove, Georgia.” Eagle Grove is a few miles south of Hartwell. The tune is a clear borrowing from ‘Wearing of the Green’. See also ‘Our Goodman’, Sharp, i., 269, for melodic similarities. Further stanzas of the text are given under ‘Glorious Prospect’. In The Musical Quarterly, vol. xxii., No. 2, I have called attention to melodic similarities between the above tune (with its variants ‘Oh For my Soul’s Happy’, ‘We’ll Wait Till Jesus Comes’, and ‘O When Shall I see Jesus’ in this collection) and Stephen Foster’s ‘Annie My own Love’ and ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’.