I’ve been haunted by this poem by Charles Wesley for the last week or so.
Idumća (1763)
And am I born to die?
To lay this body down!
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
Must then my portion be!Waked by the trumpet sound,
I from my grave shall rise;
And see the Judge with glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies!
To hear this done right, you have to catch one of the eight (!) versions covered by Current 93, in the album Black Ships Ate the Sky. Christian apocalyptic folk is only outdone by Sufjan Stevens’ Seven Swans.
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