[2] The song uses the theme of death to remind the audience of the glory that awaits in Heaven, when Christians believe they will transcend the earthly world of suffering and come to rest in their final home.

The song is characterized by its use of repetition as a key poetic element, powerful imagery, personal rhetoric, and potentially coded lyrics.

Its free-form structure intentionally allows for improvisation and spur-of-the-moment changes made to bring the performers and audience to a state of ecstasy and connection with the Holy Spirit.

[3] It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.

[5][6] Some sources[7][8] claim that this song and "Steal Away"[9] (also sung by Willis) had lyrics that referred to the Underground Railroad, the freedom movement that helped black people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.

Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies.

By directly calling to the listener in the second stanza (“If you get there before I do”) the audience is transformed into a creative device that serves to heighten the emotional urgency of the tune.

[12] The song was originally intended to be sung in a call-and-response, a format that draws from the heritage of African styles of music and is widely used in African-American churches today.

[13] Like other spirituals, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” has been thought to contain coded meanings not immediately apparent to all listeners.

American historian Charshee Charlotte Lawrence McIntyre argues that many spirituals make use of “metonymic devices,” or metaphors that have encoded meanings.

These double meanings allowed enslaved people to safely communicate messages of hope, freedom, and specific plans for escape to one another under the watchful gaze of their captors.

[45][46] British rock musician Eric Clapton recorded a reggae version of the song for his 1975 studio album There's One in Every Crowd.

RSO Records released it with the B-side "Pretty Blue Eyes" as a seven-inch gramophone single in May the same year, produced by Tom Dowd.

[54][55] Folk singer Joe Stead claimed he introduced it to the rugby fraternity as early as 1960 after hearing it from civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

[56] An article published in Tatler in 1966 described a "tradition" at the West Park bar at Twickenham of patrons singing the song whilst swaying as one, shoulder-to-shoulder.

[56] The curator of the museum believes the crowd at Twickenham would already have known "Swing Low" because it had been sung in rugby clubs since the 1960s, with rude gestures illustrating the words.

[62] In 2020 the Rugby Football Union, in response to the increased interest in the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd, said it was "reviewing" fans' use of the song.

[67][68] 1999's tournament featured Russell Watson record a version (titled Swing Low '99) which had less success, only peaking at number 38 on the UK chart.

[71][72] In the wake of the tournament, UB40 performed the song at a concert at the NEC Arena Birmingham that was attended by England rugby fans and captain Martin Johnson.

An upbeat party anthem version of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – The Song was premiered at the "Polo Rocks" concert in aid of The Prince's Trust.