No. 176 Weeping Pilgrim or You May Tell Them Father or I’m a Poor Mourning Pilgrim, Osh 417
Pentatonic, mode 1 (I II — IV V VI —)
You may tell them, father, when you see them,
I’m a poor mourning pilgrim, I’m bound for Canaan’s land.
I weep and I mourn, and I move slowly on,
I’m a poor mourning pilgrim, I’m bound for Canaan’s land.
The text is probably a parody of ‘Rebel Soldier’ or ‘Poor Stranger’, Sharp, ii., 212ff. Especially the refrain verses of the two songs show textual and tonal resemblances. The secular refrain runs:
I am a rebel soldier and far from my home.
The cowboys, too, made use of the ‘Rebel Soldier’ or ‘Mourning Pilgrim’ in the song ‘Poor Lonesome Cowboy’, Sandburg, p. 273, which reads:
I’m a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home.
The spiritual song appeared first in the 1859 edition of the Sacred Harp.