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]1 the doors, O Soul! Tenderly! be not impatient! (Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh! Strong is your hold, O Love.)
Whispers of Heavenly Death
Song Cycle by Eugene MacDonald Bonner (1889 - 1983)
?. The last invocation  [sung text not yet checked]
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "The last invocation", appears in Leaves of Grass, first published 1900
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Bacon: "up"; Pederson: "open"
Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
?.
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Text Authorship:
- by Léon Bazalgette (1873 - 1928)
Based on:
- a text in English by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Whispers of Heavenly Death", appears in Leaves of Grass
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?.
— This text is not currently
in the database but will be added
as soon as we obtain it. —
Text Authorship:
- by Léon Bazalgette (1873 - 1928)
Based on:
- a text in English by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Darest thou now O Soul"
Go to the general single-text view
?. Darest thou now, O soul  [sung text not yet checked]
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, [that inaccessible land]1. Till when the [ties loosen]2, All but the ties eternal, Time and Space, Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds, [bound]3 us. Then we burst forth -- we float, In Time and Space, O Soul, prepared for them; Equal, equipt at last, -- (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfil, O Soul.
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.
1 W. Schuman: "the inaccessible land,/ The unknown region."2 Bacon: "tie is loosened"
3 Bacon: "bounding"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
?. Whispers of heavenly death  [sung text not yet checked]
Whispers of heavenly death murmur'd I hear, Labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals, Footsteps gently ascending, mystical breezes wafted soft and low, Ripples of unseen rivers, tides of a current flowing, forever flowing, (Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human tears?) I see, just see skyward, great cloud-masses, Mournfully slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing, With at times a half-dimm'd sadden'd far-off star, Appearing and disappearing. (Some parturition rather, some solemn immortal birth; On the frontiers to eyes impenetrable, Some soul is passing over.)
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Whispers of Heavenly Death", 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) , 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