Stars in the Elements

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "The stars in the elements are falling, And the moon drips away into blood, And the ransomed of the Lord are returning to God, O blessed be the name of the Lord." Verses: "Don't you hear those Christians praying (sinners screaming/crying)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 162-163, "Stars in the Elements" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 84-85 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15226
NOTES [167 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every verse ends "And the moon drips away into blood, And the ransomed of the Lord are returning to God, O blessed be the name of the Lord."
Biblical references: Revelation 6:12-13: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind"; Isaiah 35:10: "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads" (King James).
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Stars in the Elements are Falling" on page 84 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 84. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Dett162

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