Miscellaneous — Old Melodies

This groaning earth is too dark and drear

No. 1171
Tune THIS GROANING EARTH.
Words Annie R. Smith.
Music Arranged.
Key A-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 6/8
3 stanzas

Words

This groaning earth is too dark and drearFor the saint's eternal home;But the city from heaven will soon appear,And we know that the moment is drawing nearWhen she in her glory shall come.Her gates of pearl we soon shall see,And her music we soon shall hear.Joyous and bright our home shall be,And we'll walk in the shadow of Life's fair treeWith our Saviour forevermore.

We'll gladly exchange a world like this,Where death triumphant reigns,For a beautiful home in that land of bliss,Where all is happiness, joy, and peace,And nothing can enter that pains.There is no more sorrow and no more night,For the darkness shall flee away;The crucified Lamb is its glorious light,And the saints shall walk with him in whiteIn that happy, eternal day.

O, there the loved of earth shall meet,Whom death has sundered here;The prophets and patriarchs there we'll greet,And all shall worship at Jesus' feet,No more separation to fear.Though trials and griefs await us here,The conflict will soon be o'er;This glorious hope our hearts doth cheer,For we know that the Saviour will soon appear,And then we shall grieve no more.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «MISCELLANEOUS—OLD MELODIES.»; hymn number «1171» (large), tune name «THIS GROANING EARTH.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «ARRANGED.» at the right; no meter and no reference line. Stanza 1 is interlinear, one line per system, with «1.» before «This»: system 1 = verse lines 1–2 and the start of line 3, system 2 = the rest of line 3 and lines 4–5, system 3 = lines 6–7. Verse lines 8–10 are printed in italics as a second lyric line under the end of system 1 and under system 2, preceded by «D. S.—», and are sung there after the «D.S.» at the end of system 3 (the music returns to the segno over «But the» and ends at «Fine.» after «come.»). Stanza 1 below is assembled in the order sung. «groaning», «glory», «shadow», «Saviour» are set unbroken under two notes; «e - ter - nal», «mo - ment», «mu - sic», «Joy - ous», «forev - er - more» with spaced hyphens, «cit-y», «ap-pear», «draw-ing» with tight ones; «heaven» is one note. Stanzas 2–3 follow as text in two columns, numbered «2», «3» without a full stop (numbered «2.», «3.» here like stanza 1), with «Annie R. Smith.» in italics after stanza 3. Lines 2, 5, 7 and 10 of each stanza are indented in the print. The print sets a thin space before «;» («home ;», «away ;», «here ;», «o'er ;»); it is closed up here. In stanza 3 the line «For we know that the Saviour will soon ap-/pear,» is broken by the column width; joined here. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's.