[Music]
How can I vent my grief? My comforter is fled!
By day I sigh without relief And groan upon my bed.
How little did I think when first I did begin
To join a little with the world it was so great a sin.
I thought I might conform, nor singular appear,
Converse and dress as others did, but now I feel the snare.
My confidence is gone, I find no words to say,
Barren and lifeless is my soul when I attempt to pray.
The tune is similar to those used with several text variants of 'The
Wife of Usher's Well'. Sharp, i., 150ff. The oldest American song book
record of the 'Backslider' tune is in Ingalls' _Christian Harmony_ of
1805, p. 55, where it is entitled 'The General Doom' and begins:
Behold! with awful pomp,
The Judge prepares to come;
Th' archangel sounds the awful trump
And wakes the general doom.
No. 72
GOOD OLD WAY (B), OL 8