Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows - through doors - burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
[Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet - no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums - so shrill you bugles blow.]1

Beat! beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!
[Over the traffic of cities - over the rumble of wheels in the streets;]1
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? 
No sleepers must sleep in those beds --
[No bargainers bargains by day - no brokers or speculators - would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums --]1 you bugles wilder blow.

[Beat! beat! drums!]1 - blow! bugles! blow!
[Make no parley - stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid - mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums - so loud you bugles blow.]1

E. Bacon sets stanza 1

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Omitted by Neidlinger.

Text Authorship:

• by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Beat! Beat! Drums!" [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 Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", c1926, published 1928, stanza 1 [ voice and piano ], from Ten Songs by Ernst Bacon, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912), "Beat, beat, drums", op. 45 no. 6 (1901), published 1903 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Six American Lyrics, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Howard Hanson (1896 - 1981), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1935 [ SATB chorus and orchestra ], from Songs from "Drum Taps" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fenno Heath , "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1955 [ TTBB chorus, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (1861 - 1935), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1932 [ men's chorus in unison, percussion, piano duet or woodwinds ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Sam Raphling (b. 1910), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1968 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Albert Frederic Stoessel (1894 - 1943), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1922 [ SATB chorus, piano (or trumpets and percussion) ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Richard Pearson Thomas (b. 1957), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", from Drum Taps, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Jeffrey Van (b. 1941), "Beat! Beat! Drums!" [ SATB chorus and guitar ], from A Procession Winding Around Me, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Beat! beat! drums!", published 1936 [ SATB chorus, soprano, baritone, orchestra (or piano and string orchestra) ], from Dona nobis pacem, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Christos Vrionides (1894 - 1961), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1952, from A Cycle of Whitman Poems [sung text not yet checked]
• by Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1942 [ voice and piano ], from Three Walt Whitman Songs, no. 2, NY : Chappell [sung text not yet checked]
• by Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950), "Beat! Beat! Drums!", published 1977 [ voice, orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by William Harold Neidlinger (1863 - 1924), "Memories of President Lincoln", published 1920 [ baritone or tenor, piano ]
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Johannes Schlaf (1862 - 1941) [an adaptation] ; composed by Paul Hindemith, Othmar Schoeck.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Battez ! battez ! tambours !", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-04
Line count: 22
Word count: 224