You have all heard Walt Whitman’s poetry — but only a lucky few of you have had the opportunity to hear him like this. The extraordinary Daniel Redman has given us a new way to receive Whitman’s words, by setting the poems of Leaves of Grass to song. As the Poetry Foundation describes it, “His performances blend the tradition of ecstatic music and Jewish prayer with the lilting, loping music of America’s passionate bard, an oddly resonant combination.”
Hear for yourself. If you listen long enough, Daniel will even connect Whitman to Whitney via The Wiz. He’s that good.
Enjoy.
Ellen
Thou peerless, passionate, good cause,
Thou stern, remorseless, sweet idea,
Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands,
After a strange sad war, great war for thee,
(I think all war through time was really fought, and ever will be
really fought, for thee,)
These chants for thee, the eternal march of thee.
(A war O soldiers not for itself alone,
Far, far more stood silently waiting behind, now to advance in this book.)
Thou orb of many orbs!
Thou seething principle! thou well-kept, latent germ! thou centre!
Around the idea of thee the war revolving,
With all its angry and vehement play of causes,
(With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years,)
These recitatives for thee,—my book and the war are one,
Merged in its spirit I and mine, as the contest hinged on thee,
As a wheel on its axis turns, this book unwitting to itself,
Around the idea of thee.
Click here for a little more historical context on the political slogan “good old cause.”