No. 4 Hicks’ Farewell, Soh 19
Pentatonic, mode 2 (I — 3 IV V — 7)
The time is swiftly rolling on
When I must faint and die;
My body to the dust return
And there forgotten lie.
William Walker claims the tune. See ‘Farewell’ in this collection for different melodies associated with this text. Cecil Sharp recorded five versions of the song as he heard them in the Appalachian Mountains in 1916 and 1918. See Sharp, ii., 142-143. The text (given more fully under ‘Farewell’) was written by the Reverend B. Hicks of South Carolina. See White Spirituals, 202ff.