by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
At the last, tenderly
Language: English
1 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. 2 Let me glide noiselessly forth; With the key of softness unlock the locks -- with a whisper, Set [ope]1 the doors, O Soul! 3 Tenderly! be not impatient! (Strong is your hold, O mortal flesh! Strong is your hold, O Love.)
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)1 Bacon: "up"; Pederson: "open"
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "The last invocation", appears in Leaves of Grass, first published 1900 [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 Samuel Hans Adler (b. 1928), "The last invocation", published 1977 [ medium voice and string quartet ], from Sixth String Quartet (A Whitman Serenade), no. 4, New York, Carl Fischer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "At the last" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "The last invocation", c1927, published 1930 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Songs at Parting: A Selection of Walt Whitman's Poems, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Arthur Bergh (1882 - 1962), "The imprisoned soul", op. 31 no. 1, published 1939 [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Edward) Maurice Besly (1888 - 1945), "At the last", op. 21 no. 4, published 1922 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gordon Ware Binkerd (1916 - 2003), "The last invocation", published 1956 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Eugene MacDonald Bonner (1889 - 1983), "The last invocation", published 1925, from Whispers of Heavenly Death [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jack Arthur Boyd (b. 1932), "The last invocation", published 1963 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), "The last invocation", 1918, published 1919 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Louis Campbell-Tipton (1877 - 1921), "Invocation", op. 32 no. 2, published 1915 [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Wallace Carter (1929 - 1991), "The last invocation", published 1975 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thade Jude Correa (b. 1983), "The Last Invocation", published 2012 [ high voice and piano ], from Whitman Songs, no. 6, Alliance Publications [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roland Diggle (1885 - 1954), "The last invocation", published 1946 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Percival Garratt (1877 - 1953), "The last invocation", op. 36, published 1920 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Philip Glass (b. 1937), "The last invocation", published 1967 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Elizabeth Henderson , "The last invocation", published 1946 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Wells Hively (1902 - 1969), "The last invocation", published 1945 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Timothy Hoekman , "The last invocation", 1995, published 2016 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Andrew Hudson , "At the last", from Three Poems Of Walt Whitman, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Leonard Kastle (b. 1929), "The last invocation", published 1956 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Otto Luening (1900 - 1996), "At the last", published 1936 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "The last invocation" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Daniel Lee Pederson (flourished after 2000), "The Last Invocation", 2002 [ satb chorus a cappella ], confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ada Weigel Powers (1863 - 1947), "The last invocation", published 1927 [sung text not yet checked]
- by James Hotchkiss Rogers (1857 - 1940), "The last invocation", published 1919 [ voice and piano ], from In Memoriam, no. 3, New York, G. Schirmer [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Simon Sargon (b. 1938), "The last invocation", 1995 [ baritone, horn, piano ], from A Clear Midnight: Six Songs set to Poems of Walt Whitman for Baritone, Horn, and Piano, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Albert Daniel Schmutz (1887 - ?), "The last invocation", published 1939 [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Howard Schuman (1910 - 1992), "The last invocation", published 1959, from Carols of Death, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Eva Ruth Spalding (1882 - 1969), "The last invocation", published 1919 [ voice and piano ], from Trois mélodies, no. 3, Paris, Éditions Senart, also set in French (Français) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Starer (1924 - 2001), "Last invocation" [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Warren Storey-Smith (1855 - 1971), "The last invocation", published 1934 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Randall Thompson (1899 - 1984), "The last invocation", 1922 [ SSATTB chorus ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "The last invocation", 1904, first performed 1904 [ vocal duet for soprano and baritone with piano, violin obbligato, optional string quartet ], from Two Vocal Duets, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Ian Venables (b. 1955), "The Last Invocation", op. 50 no. 4, from The Last Invocation, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Emerson Whithorne (1884 - 1958), "Invocation", op. 29 no. 1, published 1921 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas Carl Whitmer (1873 - 1959), "The last invocation", published 1928 [ vocal quartet, chorus, and piano or orchestra ], from Choral Rhapsody [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Léon Bazalgette (1873 - 1928) ; composed by Eva Ruth Spalding.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
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Research team for this page: Ted Perry , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 69