[Music]
There is a land of pleasure
Where streams of joy forever roll;
'Tis there I have my treasure,
And there I long to rest my soul.
Long darkness dwelt around me
With scarcely once a cheering ray,
But since my Savior found me,
A lamp has shown along the way.
My way is full of danger,
But 'tis the path that leads to God,
And like a faithful soldier
I'll march along the heav'nly road.
Now I must gird my sword on,
My breast plate, helmet and my shield,
And fight the host of Satan,
Until I reach the heav'nly field.
I'm on the way to Zion,
Still guided by my Saviour's hand,
O come along dear sinners
And see Emanuel's happy land.
To all that stay behind me,
I bid a long, a sad farewell.
Come now, or you'll repent it
When you do reach the gates of hell.
Echoes of 'Turkey in the Straw' (see Sandburg, p. 94) are heard in
this tune. Compare also 'My Grandma Lived on Yonder Little Green', WS
166. The immediate ancestor of the tune, and the source of its title,
is the secular song 'A Rose-Tree in Full Bearing', _The English
Musical Repository_, Edinburgh, 1811, p. 127. It appeared in William
Shield's ballad opera 'The Poor Soldier', 1783. The 'Rose Tree' air
was known in Ireland also as 'Moreen O'Cullenan' and was associated,
among other texts, with Moore's 'I'd Mourn the Hopes that Leave Us'.
See Joyce, p. 40.
No. 93
CLAMANDA, OSH 42