“We're All Surrounded”
Description
"Martha wept and Mary cried. We're all surrounded. That good old man he up and died. We're all surrounded."
Notes
Harlow gives this as an example of a Negro cotton stowing song that was adapted as a shanty. - SL
The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. I don't have a good explanation for the "We're all surrounded" chorus (unless it's a mistake); it occurs to me that it might, just possibly, be a reference to Hebrews 12:1, where we are told that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (who might well include Martha and Mary). The problem, is, the King James version uses the verb "compassed about" rather than "surrounded" (the Greek means something like "having an encirclement"). There is, in fact, no instance of the English verb "to surround," in any form, in the King James Bible. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Marthy Wept (Mary Wept and Marthy Moaned)" (lyrics)
References
- Harlow, p. 6, "We're All Surrounded" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #9164
- BI, Harl006