"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a Christian hymn, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band. The song is sometimes confused with a similarly titled composition "When the Saints are Marching In" from 1896 by Katharine Purvis (lyrics) and James Milton Black (music).
Read more about When The Saints Go Marching In: Uses, Lyrics, Analysis of The Traditional Lyrics
Famous quotes containing the words marching in, when the, saints and/or marching:
“The Saints come,
as human as a mouth,
with a bag of God in their backs,
like a hunchback,
they come,
they come marching in.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Most writers steal a good thing when they can,
And when ‘tis safely got ‘tis worth the winning.
The worst of ‘t is we now and then detect ‘em,
Before they ever dream that we suspect ‘em.”
—Bryan Waller Proctor (1787–1874)
“We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What if there’s nothing up there at the top?
Where are the captains that govern mankind?
What tears down a tree that has nothing within it?
A blast of wind, O a marching wind,
March wind, and any old tune,
March march and how does it run.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)