What is the meaning of the phrase the people keep a comin but the train done gone from the song Mary had a baby?

Answer 1

Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, in MARY HAD A BABY (A Bible Study based on African American Spirituals, published by Abingdon Press) writes:

"In this version of 'Mary had a Baby,' this refrain ends every verse: 'The people keep a-comin' and the train done gone.' Trains were a new reality in the newly emerging industrial age of the early nineteenth century. They connected places that had been previously isolated. Trains represented a way out, whether physical spiritual, or imaginative. Train imagery figures prominently in Africa American lore. In the spiritual 'Get on Board, Little Children' 'the gospel train is comiong, the cog wheel is a-moing' and rumblin' through the land." "Get on board" to reach the land of spriitual freedom. There is also the historical image of the Underground Railroad, which took passengers from station to station on its way to physical freedom....

"The phrase may constitute a spiritual warning. Mary's baby represents freedom, salvation and deliverance. "Oh my LOrs!" Do not miss your opportunity to worship him. Jesus is the way out of sin and death."

Answer 2

Oh, dude, that line is basically saying that the people are arriving, but the train has already left the station. It's like when you show up late to a party and all the good snacks are gone. So, the people are coming, but they missed their chance to hop on the train. Like, better luck next time, I guess.

Answer 3

Well, honey, that phrase from "Mary Had a Baby" basically means that the people are arriving late to the party because the train has already left the station. It's a metaphor for missing out on an opportunity or being left behind. So, in simpler terms, it's like showing up to a potluck when all the good food is already gone.

Answer 4

The phrase "the people keep a comin but the train done gone" from the song "Mary Had a Baby" is a metaphorical expression that conveys the idea that despite people's efforts or intentions, they have missed an opportunity or are too late to benefit from a particular situation. In this context, it suggests that individuals may continue to arrive or seek something, but the opportunity or desired outcome has already passed or is no longer available, akin to a train that has already departed. This phrase can be interpreted as a commentary on missed chances, the passage of time, or the inevitability of change.

Answer 5

People ignored and reviled Jesus when He was in the body 2,000 years ago, but after He died more and more people began to realize Who He was, but by then it was too late to meet Him in the body: they had 'missed the train'. Of course it is never too late to meet Him in the spirit, but the powerful experience of meeting the Christ in the body has to wait until His coming again.

I believe that God does incarnate as the Christ approximately every 700 to 1400 years, and that He has come again twice since the Advent of the historical Jesus. Every time He comes, the majority of people do not recognize Him, until gradually, after hundreds of years, a large body of followers throughout the world recognize Who He was, and another religion is formed. His proclamation of Universal Love gradually turns into a religion and then ossifies into a dry husk of rituals and dogmas, of 'us versus them'... and then it is time for Him to come again.