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by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Patrolling Barnegat
Language: English 
Wild, wild the storm, and the sea high running,
Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant undertone muttering,
Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing,
Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing,
Out in the shadows there milk-white combs careering,
On beachy slush and sand spirts of snow fierce slanting,
Where through the murk the easterly death-wind breasting,
Through cutting swirl and spray watchful and firm advancing,
(That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?)
Slush and sand of the beach tireless till daylight wending,
Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along the midnight edge by those milk-white combs careering,
A group of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting,
That savage trinity warily watching.

Text Authorship:

  • by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), appears in Leaves of Grass, in Sea-Drift, no. 10 [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 Joe LoCascio (b. 1955), "Patrolling Barnegat", 2017, copyright © 2017, first performed 2017 [ soprano voice and piano ], from Six Songs on Poems of Walt Whitman, no. 2, Gently Criminal Publishing [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-11-04
Line count: 14
Word count: 123

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