by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
For the lands, and for these passionate...
Language: English
For the lands, and for these passionate days, and for myself, Now I awhile return to thee, O soil of Autumn fields, Reclining on thy breast, giving myself to thee, Answering the pulses of thy sane and equable heart, Tuning a verse for thee. O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice! O harvest of my lands! O boundless summer growths! O lavish, brown, parturient earth! O infinite, teeming womb! [A verse to seek, to see, to]1 narrate thee.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Philadelphia: David McKay, c1900.
1 Gurney: "A song to"Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), no title, appears in Leaves of Grass, in A Carol of Harvest, for 1867, no. 2 [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 Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "For the lands", 1925 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2022-04-18
Line count: 9
Word count: 82