On the Frontiers
Composed by
Ernst Bacon
Ernst Bacon Text by
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman "On the Frontiers" is one of Ernst Bacon's Walt Whitman settings.
Text
“On the Frontiers” lyrics come from the poem Whispers Of Heavenly Death
by Walt Whitman
WHISPERS of heavenly death murmur’d I hear,
Labial gossip of night, sibilant chorals,
Footsteps gently ascending, mystical breezes wafted soft and low,
Ripples of unseen rivers, tides of a current flowing, forever flowing,
(Or is it the plashing of tears? the measureless waters of human
tears?)
I see, just see skyward, great cloud-masses,
Mournfully slowly they roll, silently swelling and mixing,
With at times a half-dimm’d sadden’d far-off star,
Appearing and disappearing.
(Some parturition rather, some solemn immortal birth;
On the frontiers to eyes impenetrable,
Some soul is passing over.)