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by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Passage to more than India!
Language: English 
[Passage to more than India!
O secret of the earth and sky!
Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers!
Of you, O woods and fields! Of you, strong mountains of my land!
Of you, O prairies! Of you, gray rocks!
O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows!
O day and night, passage to you!
  
O sun and moon, and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
Passage to you!
  
Passage - immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!]1
Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers - haul out - shake out every sail!
[Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?	 
Have we not grovell'd here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?]1
  
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!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   J. Rogers •   R. Vaughan Williams 

J. Rogers sets stanzas 4-5

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
1 omitted by Vaughan Williams

Text Authorship:

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

  • by Derek Healey (b. 1936), "Passage, Immediate Passage", op. 135 no. 6 (2013) [ contralto and piano ], from Seascapes and Shanties, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by James Hotchkiss Rogers (1857 - 1940), "Sail forth!", published 1919, stanzas 4-5 [ voice and piano ], from In Memoriam, no. 6, New York, G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Passage to more than India!", alternate title: "Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!", from A Sea Symphony, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]

Research team for this page: Thomas A. Gregg , Ahmed E. Ismail

This text was added to the website: 2004-07-06
Line count: 23
Word count: 202

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