by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
Coffin that passes through lanes and...
Language: English
Coffin that passes through lanes and streets, Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land, With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities draped in black, With the show of the States themselves as of crepe-veil'd women standing, With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night, With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and the unbared heads, With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces, With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn, With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour'd around the coffin, The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs -- where amid these you journey, With the tolling bells' perpetual clang, Here, coffin that slowly passes, I give you a sprig of lilac.
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View text with all available footnotesAuthorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Memories of President Lincoln, in When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, no. 6 [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):
- [ None yet in the database ]
The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:
- by Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963), "Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities" [ baritone, mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra ], from cantata When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, no. 3
- by Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985), "Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities", from cantata When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, no. 2
Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail
This text was added to the website: 2005-01-13
Line count: 13
Word count: 135