Reconciliation | Word over all, beautiful as the sky!

by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Reconciliation

Language: English

Our translations: FRE

Word over all, beautiful as the sky!
Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage,/
   must in time be utterly lost;
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, /
   incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world:
...For my enemy is dead -- a man divine as myself is dead;
I look where he lies, white-faced and still, in the coffin -- I draw near;
[I bend]¹ down, and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• N. Rorem

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Rorem: "Bend down"

Text Authorship:

by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Reconciliation", appears in Leaves of Grass [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 Thade Jude Correa (b. 1983), "Reconciliation", published 2012 [ high voice and piano ], from Whitman Songs, no. 3, Alliance Publications [sung text not yet checked]
by Vivian Fine (1913 - 2000), "Reconciliation", 1991, first performed 1991 [ soprano, piano, violin, oboe, bassoon, and percussion ], from Songs of Love and War, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Reconciliation", 1925 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Reconciliation", from Five Poems of Walt Whitman, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jeffrey Van (b. 1941), "Reconciliation" [ SATB chorus and guitar ], from A Procession Winding Around Me, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Reconciliation", published 1936 [ soprano and baritone soli, chorus, and orchestra ], from Dona nobis pacem, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 83