Tossed and Driven (The Poor Pilgrim)

DESCRIPTION: "I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow, I am left in this wide world to roam... I've started to make Heaven my home." "Sometimes I'm so tossed and driven. Sometimes I know not where to roam." The singer has left his family; after death he hopes to see them again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious death travel
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 610, "Tossed and Driven" (2 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 643, "Tossed and Driven" (1 text, a seemingly-simplified form with the same chorus but the verses consist of advice from relatives: "(Father/Mother/Sister/Brother) told me when he was dying... Dear daughter, live for Jesus; This world is not my home")
Gainer-FolkSongsFromTheWestVirginiaHills, pp. 192-193, "The Pilgrim of Sorrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5425
RECORDINGS:
I. D. Beck & congregation, "Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow" (on LomaxCD1704)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Am a Pilgrim"
NOTES [54 words]: This song instantly made me think of "Man of Constant Sorrow," and also of "Wayfaring Stranger," but I cannot tell if there is any connection. And "pilgrim" songs all sound alike somehow. - RBW
George Pullen Jackson sees a resemblance between this song and the one we've indexed as "Green Mossy Banks of the Lea". Maybe. - PJS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: R610

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