American song: I wonder as I wander ....

A simple melody is the magic in this lovely Appalachian carol as it effortlessly communicates the action described in its opening lyric, "I wonder as I wander out under the sky ...."

A memory also comes to mind every time I hear it. When in fourth or fifth grade at Russell, our teacher arranged a Christmas exchange with a class of counterparts somewhere in the hills of Kentucky. Our parents had some money; their parents, less. So we sent toys and warm clothing south. In return, the Kentucky children sent north a big cardboard box filled with fragrant greens unfamiliar in southern Iowa, including holly and mistletoe.

The words and melody were composed by John Jacob Niles, a folklorist and singer, who collected three lines of verse and a melodic fragment upon which it is based from a young girl named Annie Morgan during 1933 in Murphy, North Carolina.

I especially like this arrangement of the melody for hammered dulcimer and guitar.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

When Mary birthed Jesus 'twas in a cow's stall
With wise men and farmers and shepherds and all
But high from God's heaven, a star's light did fall
And the promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's Angels in heaven to sing
He surely could have it, 'cause he was the King

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky