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In Memoriam

Song Cycle by James Hotchkiss Rogers (1857 - 1940)

1. Dark Mother, always gliding near
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
 ... 

Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee -- I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Approach, strong Deliveress,
When it is so, when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead,	
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O 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

2. Requiem
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie;
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

 ... 

This be the verse you grave for me:
"Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."

Text Authorship:

  • by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), "Requiem", appears in Underwoods, first published 1887

See other settings of this text.

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Grabschrift", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Requiem", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Note: Steele changes "longed" to "long'd" in the last stanza.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. 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]

4. Joy, shipmate, joy!
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Joy, shipmate, joy!
(Pleas'd to my soul at death I cry,)
Our life is closed, our life begins,
The long, long anchorage we leave,
The ship is clear at last, she leaps!
She swiftly courses from the shore,
Joy, shipmate, joy.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Joy, shipmate, joy", appears in Leaves of Grass

See other settings of this text.

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Alegra’t company de bord, alegra’t!", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. After Death in Arabia
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
He who died at Azan sends
This to comfort all his friends:

 ... 

Allah glorious! Allah good!
Now thy world is understood;
Now the long, long wonder ends;
Yet ye weep, my erring friends,
While the man whom ye call dead,
In unspoken bliss, instead,
Lives and loves you; lost, 't is true,
By such light as shines for you;
But in the light ye cannot see
Of unfulfilled felicity, --
In enlarging paradise,
Lives a life that never dies.

 ... 

Be ye certain all seems love,
Viewed from Allah's throne above;
Be ye stout of heart, and come
Bravely onward to your home!
La Allah illa Allah! yea!
Thou love divine! Thou love alway!

He that died at Azan gave
This to those who made his grave.

Text Authorship:

  • by Edwin Arnold (1832 - 1904), "After Death in Arabia", appears in Poems, first published 1880

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. Sail forth!
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
 ... 

Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! Are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Passage to India, section 13

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Thomas A. Gregg , Ahmed E. Ismail
Total word count: 438
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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