No. 33 Saint’s Request, Osh 286
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
Young people all attention give
And hear what I shall say;
I wish your souls with Christ to live,
In everlasting day.
I want you to go to that bright world,
To dwell with saints forever there.
The Sacred Harp gives but one stanza of this ballad. The rest of the text is to be found in Zion Songster. The tune is widely used among the secular ballads. See ‘Barbara Allen’, Sharp, i., 183; ‘Geordie’, Sharp, i., 240; ‘False Young Man’, Sharp, ii., 52; ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor’, Smith, 115; ‘True Lover’s Farewell’, Sharp, ii., 114; ‘Lizzie Wan’, Sharp, i., 89; and ‘Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard’, Sharp, i., 164 and 166.