Text
I’se mighty tired of dis heavy load
I’se mighty tired of dis heavy load
I wants to be wid Jesus
In Sodom an’ Gomorrah,
Lord, Take me ovah Jerdon
To mah Jesus, camp ground.
Source: Jessye, Eva. My Spirituals. New York: Robbins-Engel, 1927.
“I’se Mighty Tired” is a spiritual arrangement for voice and piano by Eva Jessye. The song is the sixteenth and final arrangement included in Jessye’s book My Spirituals (1927). In the song’s preface, Jessye describes its connection to her Great-Grandmother Hill, who would visit unexpectedly and enrapture all thirty of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren with her stories. Jessye writes, “She was amazingly vigorous for her twice fifty years and could thread a needle without the aid of glasses. She got about briskly with the aid of an oak stick and was never the querulous, decrepit old lady her age entitled her to be. ‘I’se Mighty Tired,’ is a Spiritual I heard her sing on one of her extemporaneous visits. I will never forget the pathetic resignation expressed in the noble recitative as sung by one who had long since received all life had to bestow and was now awaiting the summons to ‘Mah Jesus’ Camp Groun’.’”
Print vitals & song textI’se mighty tired of dis heavy load
I’se mighty tired of dis heavy load
I wants to be wid Jesus
In Sodom an’ Gomorrah,
Lord, Take me ovah Jerdon
To mah Jesus, camp ground.
Source: Jessye, Eva. My Spirituals. New York: Robbins-Engel, 1927.