by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
On the beach at night
Language: English
On the beach at night, Stands a child with her father, Watching the east, the autumn sky. Up through the darkness, While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading, Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky, Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east, Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter, And nigh at hand, only a very little above, Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades. From the beach the child holding the hand of her father, Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, Watching, silently weeps. Weep not, child, Weep not, my darling, With these kisses let me remove your tears, The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition, Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shall shine out again, The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure, The vast immortal suns and the long-enduring pensive moons shall again shine. Then dearest child mournest thou only for Jupiter? Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars? Something there is, (With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper, I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,) Something there is more immortal even than the stars, (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter Longer than sun or any revolving satellite, Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.
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Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "On the Beach at Night" [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 Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "The Lord Star", published 1949 [ baritone, 6-part chorus, mixed chorus, and piano or organ or orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by William Laurence Bergsma (1921 - 1994), "On the beach at night", published 1947 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Julius Allan Greenway Harrison (1885 - 1963), "Rhapsody", published 1932 [ baritone, orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Andrew Welch Imbrie (1921 - 2007), "On the beach at night", published 1961 [ SATB chorus, string orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Philip Frederick Wright James (1890 - 1975), "On the beach at night" [ bass or baritone, piano or orchestra ], from A Sea Symphony, 4th movement [sung text not yet checked]
- by Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961), "On the Beach at Night", op. 78 (2001) [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Vincent Persichetti (1915 - 1987), "The Pleiades", op. 107, published 1968 [ SSSAAATTTBBB chorus, trumpet, string orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by (Thomas) Gerard Victory (1921 - 1995), "On the beach, at night", 1953 [ tenor, SATB chorus, and orchestra ], from Carmen Stellarum, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2005-12-16
Line count: 38
Word count: 264