Negro Spirituals

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911. Negro Spirituals
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
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XVII. BOW LOW, MARY.

"Bow low, Mary, bow low, Martha,
     For Jesus come and lock de door,
     And carry de keys away.
Sail, sail, over yonder,
And view de promised land.
     For Jesus come, &c.
Weep, O Mary, bow low, Martha,
     For Jesus come, &c.
Sail, sail, my true believer;
Sail, sail, over yonder;
Mary, bow low, Martha, bow low,
     For Jesus come and lock de door
     And carry de keys away."

But of all the "spirituals" that which surprised me most, I think, -- perhaps because it was that in which external nature furnished the images most directly, -- was this. With all my experience of their ideal ways of speech, I was startled when first I came on such a flower of poetry in that dark soil.