Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment

XVIII. I know moon-rise.

I know moon-rise, I know star-rise,
Lay dis body down.
I walk in de moonlight, I walk in de starlight,
To lay dis body down.
I'll walk in de graveyard, I'll walk through de graveyard,
To lay dis body down.
I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms;
Lay dis body down.
I go to de judgment in de evenin‘ of de day,
When I lay dis body down;
And my soul and your soul will meet in de day
When I lay dis body down.

“I'll lie in de grave and stretch out my arms.” Never, it seems to me, since man first lived and suffered, was his infinite longing for peace uttered more plaintively than in that line.

The next is one of the wildest and most striking of the whole series: there is a mystical effect and a passionate striving throughout the whole. The Scriptural struggle between Jacob and the angel, which is only dimly expressed in the words, seems all uttered in the music. I think it impressed my imagination more powerfully than any other of these songs.

XIX. Wrestling Jacob.

O wrestlin‘ Jacob, Jacob, day's a-breakin‘;
I will not let thee go!
O wrestlin‘ Jacob, Jacob, day's a-breakin‘;
He will not let me go!
O, I hold my brudder wid a tremblin‘ hand;
I would not let him go!
I hold my sister wid a tremblin‘ hand;
I would not let her go!

O, Jacob do hang from a tremblin‘ limb,
He would not let him go!