Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day

DESCRIPTION: "Death, 'tis a melancholy day For those who have no God, When the poor soul is forced away To seek her last abode." The girl is condemned to Hell; others are warned of it. The singer is glad to be rescued from it.
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts
EARLIEST DATE: 1707 (Watts; see NOTES)
KEYWORDS: religious Hell death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 645, "Death, 'Tis a Melancholy Day" (1 text)
Roud #655
NOTES [122 words]: In the Sacred Harp, where the text is credited to Isaac Watts (1707) and the tune to H. S. Reed, this is called "Melancholy Day." The Missouri Harmony sets the first verse to the tune "Tribulation."
John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 285, reports that this "Appeared in the 1st ed. of {Watts's] Hymns and S[acred] Songs, 1707 (2nd ed. 1709, Bk. ii. No 52) in 6 st[anzas] of 4 l[ines]. It is usually abbreviated as in Dr. Hatfield's Church H[ymn] B[oo]k, N.Y., 1872."
Roud lumps this with "Death Is a Melancholy Call" [Laws H5], which strikes me as more reasonable than many of his other lumps. But I keep them separate based on Laws. - RBW.
Last updated in version 3.7
File: R645

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