3 Songs to words by Walt Whitman

Look down, fair moon and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple;
On the dead, on their backs, with [their]1 arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.

Text Authorship:

• by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Look down, fair moon", appears in Drum Taps, first published 1965

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Confirmed with Drum-Taps, ed. by Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, The Walt Whitman Archive

¹ omitted by Rands.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

After the dazzle of day is gone,
Only the dark, dark night shows to my eyes the stars;
After the clangor of organ majestic, or chorus, or perfect band,
Silent, athwart my soul, moves the symphony true. 

Text Authorship:

• by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death, and the stars.

Text Authorship:

• by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "A clear midnight"

See other settings of this text.

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

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , 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
• GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Portions of this text were used in Idyll by Frederick Delius.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]