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Carols of Death

 [incomplete]

Song Cycle by William Howard Schuman (1910 - 1992)

1. The last invocation
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
At the last, tenderly,
From the walls of the powerful, fortress'd house,
From the clasp of the knitted locks --
  from the keep of the well-closed doors,
Let me be wafted.

Let me glide noiselessly forth;
With the key of softness unlock the locks -- with a whisper,
Set ope the doors, O Soul!

Tenderly! be not impatient!
(Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh!
Strong is your hold, O Love.)

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "The last invocation", appears in Leaves of Grass, first published 1900

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

2. The Unknown Region
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Darest thou now O Soul,
Walk out with me toward the Unknown Region,
Where neither ground is for the feet
   nor any path to follow?

No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh,
   nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.

I know it not O Soul;
Nor dost thou -- all is a blank before us;
All waits, undream'd of, in that region,
   the inaccessible land,
The unknown region..

 ... 

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Darest thou now O Soul"

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Note: the indented lines have been broken off from the preceding lines so that parallel translations will be easier to see. This poem has five stanzas of three lines each.

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

3. To All, To Each
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Come lovely and soothing death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate death.

 ... 

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Death carol", appears in Memories of President Lincoln, in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, no. 16

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail , Gustav Ringel
Total word count: 176
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