O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved? And how shall I deck my soul for the large sweet soul that has gone? And what shall my perfume be [for]1 the grave of him I love? Sea-winds blown from the east and west, Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea, [till there on the prairies meeting, These and]2 with these [and the breath of my chant,]2 [I'll]3 perfume the grave of him I love.
Reaping the Whirlwind / The Harvest of War
by Jeffrey Van (b. 1941)
The Grave of Him I Love
Language: English
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Memories of President Lincoln, in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, no. 10 [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):
Set by Jeffrey Van (b. 1941)View original text (without footnotes)
1 Sessions: "to adorn"
2 omitted by Sessions
3 Sessions: "Will I"
Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail
Total word count: 87