Vital Sparks: “O Come, Come Away” is gone away

(I’m sending this essay out without a lot of editing, but I wanted to get it out before I leave for Atlanta and the singing from the new 2025 edition, which does not have this text and tune in it).

One of the hallmarks of The Sacred Harp is that is does not shy away from many unpleasantries in life. Death, of course, is a major theme, and so is sin, temptation, and failure. Since the book was first published, The Sacred Harp has acknowledged the reality that alcohol is often a ravaging influence has on individuals and their families. It has included the temperance song, 334 O COME AWAY:

O come, come away,
From labor now reposing,
Our jubilee has set us free—
O come, come away!
Come, hail the day that celebrates
The ransom of th’inebriates
From all that does intoxicate,
O come, come away!

We welcome you here!
With heart and hand wide open,
Ye gallant sons of temperance—
We welcome you here!
Heav’n’s blessings on your plans, we pray!
Ye come our sinking friends to save,
And rescue from a drunkard’s grave;
We welcome you here! 

We welcome you here!
Ye who with taste perverted
Have seized the cup, and drank it up—
We welcome you here!
Come, join us in our holy aim,
The poor besotted to reclaim,
The broken heart to cheer again;
O come, sign the pledge!

Of course, this language is old fashioned: we don’t call people “inebriates” or “drunkards” or “besotted” any more or consider any taste “perverted” except for some sexual tastes. These are funny words to our modern, sophisticated ears, as is, perhaps, the whole temperance movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The first printings of this poem in The Sacred Harp included two more verses [1]:

We welcome you here!
Ye who your vows have broken,
Falling before the tempter's power,—
We welcome you here!
Ye who have sold yourselves for naught,
Take back the priceless boon you bought,
O take a sober, second thought,
And try, try again!

We welcome you here!
Ye maids and matrons lovely,
Whose charms, we yield, must win the field,—
We welcome you here!
Ye who have hearts to feel for wo,
Wide as the streams of sorrow flow.
O frown on the deadly foe,
But smile on the sons!

These additional words were fit “in the corner” of the song, but they highlight that alcohol was seen primarily as a male problem, but which affected both them as well as the “maids and matrons lovely” and their woeful hearts.

And so, this song has been mostly sung in jest, especially for those who have the secret knowledge that the tune to which we sing these words come from a German drinking song, Krambambuli. Those of us who are either alcoholics or have friends or family members who are alcoholics sometimes wince at the jesting as much as at the antiquated language. So, I guess I am glad that the song is being left out of the 2025 edition of The Sacred Harp.

This column doesn’t describe tunes much; we mostly focus on texts. But I find it interesting that Krambambuli was probably not the direct source of this temperance song. That is, I don’t think it was a conscious decision to convert this song from a drinking song to an anti-drinking song. The 1860 edition of The Sacred Harp got this tune, according to Makers of The Sacred Harp from The Hesperian Harp of 1848. Or perhaps it comes from the 1854 Southern Harmony.  Or The American Vocalist of 1849. But the thing is, The Hesperian Harp uses different words:

O come, come away!
The Sabbath morn is passing;
Let’s hasten to the Sabbath school;
O come, come away!
The Sabbath bells are rising clear,
The joyous peals salute my ear,
I love their voice to hear;
O come, come away!

This is a Sabbath song, not an anti-drinking song.  Makers attributes the anti-drinking text to Stowe’s Melodies for the Temperance Band of 1856. If so, I think the poem is a probably a parody of the “Sabbath morn” poem, not an ironic twist on Krambambuli. 

There’s another version floating around at roughly the same time, perhaps a parody of the text in The Sacred Harp, or vice versa; for example, this version in the 1848 Public School Singing Book:

Oh come, come away,
From labor now reposing,
Let busy care awhile forbear,
Oh come, come away!
Come, come, our social joys renew,
And there, where trust and friendship grew,,
Let true hearts welcome you,
Oh come, come away!

Armin Hadamer, in the article “O Come, Come Away: Temperance, shape notes, and patriotism” [2] points out that English translations of Krambambuli did not circulate in the United States until the 1870s, well after the version in The Sacred Harp. He further points out that the tune was put to use for many purposes, including political campaigns. For example, James G. Blaine’s run for president in 1884:

Away to the polls
Ye sons of free Columbia,
Com join the song that rolls along,
‘Tis Blaine—he’s the man!
He’s earnest and he’s able, too,
He’s able, honest, tried and true,
His color’s the “red, white, and blue,”
Yes, Blaine—he’s the man!

In 1852, Joshua Simpson, a free-born Black man, used this tune for an anti-slavery song. It’s really quite an interesting one: it’s presented as a dialog between Queen Victoria and American enslaved Blacks, who encourages them to relocate to Canada, where they will receive the protection of the British government and a free life [3] [4].

O Come! Come away,
My sable sons & daughters,
Why linger there
In the dark despair?
O come! O come away!
On Eria’s northern banks I stand,
With open arms, and stretched out hands;
From tyrant Columbia’s land
O come! Come away!

Like the tune to 162 PLENARY, this is a tune that has been put to lots of service: political campaigns, temperance campaigns, anti-slavery campaigns, religious and social campaigns. In the 19th century, you could use this tune to express serious and heart-felt sentiments. In the 21st, this is not so. 

Footnotes and References

[1] 1860 Sacred Harp

[2] Hadamer, Armin. O Come, Come Away: Temperance, shape notes, and patriotism. Lied und populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture, 2000, 45. Jahrg. (2000),

pp. 109-120.
[3] “Queen Victoria conversing with her slave children”. The complete text can be found at https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/original-anti-slavery-songs/section/52937b97-ca6d-417e-8d21-15f96e6a2e5e
[4] More information about Johua Simpson can be found in the article, “The musical expression of anti-slavery sentiment in Ohio,” by Carol Bishop Myers in The Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin, Vol. XVIII, No 1, Spring 1992.