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]1.

Till when the [ties loosen]2,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense,
   nor any bounds, [bound]3 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.

W. Schuman sets stanzas 1-3

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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.

¹ W. Schuman: "the inaccessible land,/ The unknown region."
² Bacon: "tie is loosened"
³ Bacon: "bounding"

Text Authorship:

• by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Darest thou now O Soul" [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), "Dearest thou now o Soul", published 1977 [ medium voice, string quartet ], from Sixth String Quartet (A Whitman Serenade), no. 1, New York, Carl Fischer [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Darest thou now O soul", alternate title: "Whispers of heavenly death", 1930, published 1930 [ voice and piano ], from Songs at Parting: A Selection of Walt Whitman's Poems, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Eugene MacDonald Bonner (1889 - 1983), "Darest thou now, O soul", published 1925 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Whispers of Heavenly Death, also set in French (Français) [sung text not yet checked]
• by George Whitefield Chadwick (1854 - 1931), "Darest thou now, O soul", published 1910 [ TTBB quartet a cappella ], from Three Partsongs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roland Diggle (1885 - 1954), "Darest thou now O soul", published 1948 [ mixed chorus, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Isadore Freed (1900 - 1960), "Darest thou now O soul", published 1928 [ SSA chorus, mezzo-soprano, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Philip Glass (b. 1937), "Darest thou now, O soul" [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael Hennagin (1936 - 1993), no title, published 1968 [ SSA chorus, piano, flute, and percussion ], from The Unknown [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael Hennagin (1936 - 1993), "Darest thou now, O soul" [ SATB chorus, 3 baritones, 4 tenors, piano, flute, percussion, electronic tape, 2 slide projectors, 3 trumpets, timpani ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Hans Werner Henze (1926 - 2012), "Whispers from heavenly death" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934), "Darest thou now O Soul", c1905 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Bruno Siegfried Huhn (1871 - 1950), "The Unknown", published 1918 [ three-part female voices, piano, organ ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Normand Lockwood (b. 1906), "Darest thou now, O soul", 1959 [ SSAATTBB chorus, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Klaus Miehling (b. 1963), "Darest thou now, O Soul", op. 294 no. 1 (2019) [ voice and piano ], from Sieben Lieder nach Walt Whitman, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Vivienne Olive (b. 1950), "Whispers of Heavenly Death" [ voice ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Howard Schuman (1910 - 1992), "The Unknown Region", published 1959, stanzas 1-3 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Carols of Death, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "To the Soul", op. 97 no. 4 (1906), published 1908 [ voice, piano ], from Six Songs of Faith, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by (Olav) Fartein Valen (1887 - 1952), "Darest thou now O soul", 1928 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Toward the Unknown Region", published 1907 [ 8-part chorus, orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Darest thou now, O soul", published 1925 [ unison chorus, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Thomas Carl Whitmer (1873 - 1959), "Darest thou now, O soul", published 1928 [ vocal quartet, chorus, and piano or orchestra ], from Choral Rhapsody [sung text not yet checked]
• by David McKinley Williams (1887 - 1978), "Darest thou now, O soul", published 1926 [ soprano, chorus, and organ or orchestra ], anthem [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Wood (1866 - 1926), "Darest thou now, O Soul", 1891, published 1927 [ low voice and piano ], from Ten Songs for Low Voice, no. 6 [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 Eugene MacDonald Bonner.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    
• 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.]
    

Other 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

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 133