'Rock' meaning 'wear' or 'sport'

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Sep 15 20:27:17 UTC 2008


I know it as "Rock-a my soul ..."

-Wilson

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 8:53 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 'Rock' meaning 'wear' or 'sport'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> That's an old spiritual; a text appears in K. J. Hotzknecht, "Some Negro Song Variants from Louisville," _Journal of American Folklore_ 22 (1928): 563.
>
> A version I heard as a child (1950s) had "RockING my soul in the bosom of Abraham."
>
> I'm pretty sure, though, that the image is simply of an infant soothingly swayed while nestled against the patriarch's chest.
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:34:38 -0700
>>From: "JAMES A. LANDAU Netscape. Just the Net You Need." <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>>Subject: Re: 'Rock' meaning 'wear' or 'sport'
>>
>>
>>This may or may not be relevant:
>>
>>Sometime before fall 1965 on the record "Peter, Paul, and Mary in Concert" there was a song "Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham".
>>
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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