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O, Shenandoah, I long to see you; Ah-way, you rolling river! O, Shenandoah, I long to hear you; Ah-way, I'm bound away, Cross th' wide Missouri!
O, Shenandoah,
O, Shenandoah,
'Tis seven years,
Oh, Shenandoah! |
This folksong is not quite a spiritual, but it has a certain haunting quality of spirit tied into the land in Virginia.
My parents used to drive through the Shenandoah River Valley on various car trips during summer and fall. I used to sing to the winding river and its woody valley. I remember studying the river with the sun glinting on it's surface. I also enjoyed the green foliage growing up the Blue Ridge Mountains--which later turned into the most wonderful colors in the autumn.
Florida is flat state--no mountains. Florida also didn't have the varity of colors in the fall foliage either. We had two colors to ur seasons: green in spring and summer and brown in fall and winter. So as a Florida born kid, I was fastinated by the landscape on these trips.
I understood the tone of nostalgia in the song--as I sometimes missed Florida.
I've heard the narrator might have been a western pioneer nostalgic for his boyhood Virginia country home. Likewise, I've heard he may have an American Civil War Confederate soldier, sadly missing a sweetheart in Virginia while he's stuck elsewhere, fighting for a "cause" that he no longer even understands. Indeed, I remember that one of the verses could either be, "I love your daughter," or "I love your waters."
There are other interpretations as well, depending on the different verses and words sung.
May 2015