Delphy’s breast was wide and deep,
A shelf to lay a child asleep,
_Swing low, sweet chariot, swing low_;
Rocking like a lifted boat
On lazy tropic seas afloat,
_Swing low, sweet chariot, swing low_.
Delphy, when my mother died,
Taught me wisdom, curbed my pride,
_Swing low, sweet chariot, swing low_;
And when she laid her body down,
It shone, a jewel, in His crown,
_Swing low, sweet chariot, swing low_.
* * *
(_Underneath the southern moon
I was cradled to the tune
Of the banjo and the fiddle
And the plaintive negro croon._)
MANDY’S
RELIGION
I’se got religion an’ I doan care
Who knows that God an’ I are square,
I wuz carryin’ home my mistis’ wash
When God came an’ spoke to me out’n de hush.
An’ I th’ew de wash up inter de air,
An’ I climbed a tree to de golden stair,
Ef it hadn’t a been fur Mistah Wright
I’d had ter stayed dere all de night!
* * *
(_Underneath the southern moon
I was cradled to the tune
Of the banjo and the fiddle
And the plaintive negro croon._)