by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
The road is before us
Language: English
Allons! the road is before us! It is safe—I have tried it—my own feet have tried it well—be not detain’d! Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d! Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d! Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law. Camerado, I give you my hand! I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), appears in Song of the Open Road, no. 15 [author's text not yet checked 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 Kate Moore (b. 1979), "The road is before us", 2008 [ mezzo-soprano, harp, trumpet and organ ], from The Open Road, no. 9, Deuss Music
Publisher: Deuss Music [external link] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-09-14
Line count: 11
Word count: 123