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Songs at Parting: A Selection of Walt Whitman's Poems

Song Cycle by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990)

1. Grand is the seen
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Grand is the seen, the light, to me -- grand are the sky and stars,
Grand is the earth, and grand are lasting time and space,
And grand their laws, so multiform, puzzling, evolutionary;
But grander far the unseen soul of me, comprehending, endowing all those,
Lighting the light, the sky and stars, delving the earth, sailing the sea,
(What were all those, indeed, without thee, unseen soul? of what amount without thee?)
More evolutionary, vast, puzzling, O my soul!
More multiform far -- more lasting thou than they.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Grand is the seen"

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

2. 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 up 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]

3. Darest thou now O soul
 (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,
   that inaccessible land.

Till when the tie is loosened,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense,
   nor any bounds, bounding 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.

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

4. Twilight
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The soft voluptuous opiate shades,
The sun just gone, the eager light dispell'd -- (I too will soon be
gone, dispell'd,)
A haze -- nirwana -- rest and night -- oblivion. 

Text Authorship:

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

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

5. One thought ever at the fore
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
One thought ever at the fore -
That in the Divine Ship, the World, breasting Time and Space,
All Peoples of the globe together sail, sail the same voyage,
Are bound to the same destination.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "One thought ever at the fore"

See other settings of this text.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

6. 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]

7. Whispers of heavenly death
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
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

Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail

8. The sobbing of the bells
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, 
The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People, 
(Full well they know that message in the darkness, 
Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) 
The passionate toll and clang - city to city, joining, sounding, passing,
Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "The sobbing of the bells", appears in Leaves of Grass

Go to the general single-text view

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 534
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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