| Give me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling; | |
| Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard; | |
| Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows; | |
| Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape; | |
| Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content; | 5 |
| Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars; | |
| Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers, where I can walk undisturbed.... from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass  These are the lyrics for the anthem which we're singing for our Earth Day celebration next weekend. This is the second time I've conducted this piece and it's going to be in my repertoire forever. (here's a very bad recording to give you an idea of it's brilliance as a song.) |
I'm really loving Whitman. Every time I sing The Unknown Region I get teary-eyed. Who knew the poet I LOATHED in college would turn out to be so meaningful. (I thoroughly blame that stupid nature-writing class for my hate; Whitman at 8 a.m. boomed with Karl's voice complaining about him being gay - yeah, well, there wasn't much to like. But now...)
ReplyDeleteThere's a Civil War Suite by Jeffrey Van that uses Whitman's poetry which is also a huge favorite of mine.
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