by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
Sing on, sing on, you gray‑brown bird
Language: English
Sing on, sing on, you gray-brown bird, Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your chant from the bushes, Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines. Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song, Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe. O liquid and free and tender! O wild and loose to my soul -- O wondrous singer! You only I hear -- yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart,) Yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesAuthorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Memories of President Lincoln, in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, no. 13 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963), "Sing on, sing on, you gray-brown bird" [ baritone, mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra ], from cantata When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, no. 8 [sung text checked 1 time]
The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:
- by Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985), "Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities", from cantata When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, no. 2
Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail
This text was added to the website: 2005-01-13
Line count: 9
Word count: 83