Description
Two movements (may be performed separately); a cappella SATB choir; ca. 5 min.
The composer writes: By the time it reached its ninth edition, in 1892, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” had become a work of cosmic scale, encompassing a vast range of human emotion and experience. (Like Whitman himself, the poet’s magnum opus is large and contains multitudes.) Here, I have chosen two Whitman poems: “Tears” is a vivid yet metaphoric portrayal of the physical world; and “Darest Thou Now, O Soul” takes us into the realm of the metaphysical.