Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Ethiopia Saluting the Colors: Burleigh/Whitman
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    -Henry T. Burleigh (1866 - 1949)
    -Text by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Who are you, dusky woman, so ancient, hardly human,
With your woolly white and turban'd head, and bare bony feet?
Why, rising by the roadside here, do you the colors greet?

(Tis while our army lines Carolina's sands and pines,
Forth from thy hovel door, thou Ethiopia, com'st to me,
As, under doughty Sherman, I march toward the sea.)

Me, master, years a hundred, since from my parents sunder'd,
A little child, they caught me as the savage beast is caught,
Then hither me, across the sea, the cruel slaver brought.

No further does she say, but lingering all the day,
Her high borne turban'd head she wags, and rolls her darkling eye,
And courtseys to the regiments, the guidons moving by.

What is it, fateful woman ? so blear, hardly human?
Why wag your head with turban bound ? yellow, red and green?
Are the things so strange and marvelous, you see or have seen?
To what you said: Bernstein/Whitman
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    -This link takes you to an essay by Thomas Hampson about the remarkable Bernstein/Walt Whitman song, "To What You Said." Please read it and be prepared to discuss it.

    -Here is the full text of the poem:

Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
Text by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

To what you said, passionately clasping my hand, this is my answer:
Though you have strayed hither, for my sake, you can never belong to me,
Nor I to you,
Behold the customary loves and friendships the cold guards
l am that rough and simple person
l am he who kisses his comrade lightly on the lips at parting,
And l am one who is kissed in return,
I introduce that new American salute
Behold love choked, correct, polite, always suspicious
Behold the received models of the parlors -
What are they to me?
What to these young men that travel with me?
We Two Boys: Tilson Thomas/Whitman
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    -Michael Tilson THOMAS (born 1944)
    -Text by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking
On the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statues mocking, feebleness chasing,
Fulfilling our foray.
Excerpt from "Song of Myself"
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-Surf down through this poem to #51: this is where Hampson begins reading. Note, though, an Egregious typo in this transcription: the word YAWP is misspelled as YAWS. YAWP is correct.