Tears! tears! tears

Tears! tears! tears!
In the night, in solitude, tears,
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck'd in by the sand,
Tears, not a star shining, all dark and desolate,
Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head;
O who is that ghost? that form in the dark, with tears?
What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch'd there on the sand?
Streaming tears, sobbing tears, throes, choked with wild cries;
O storm, embodied, rising, careering with swift steps along the beach!
O wild and dismal night storm, with wind - O howling and desperate!
O shade so sedate by day, with calm countenance and steady pace,
But away at night as you fly, none looking - O then the unloosen'd ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!

by Walt Whitman (1819-1892) , "Tears"

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Norman Dello Joio (1913-) , "Tears", published 1966 [SATB chorus and piano or orchestra], from Songs of Walt Whitman, no. ?
by James R. Hanna (1922-) , "Tears", published 1967 [voice, viola, and piano], from Night, no. ?
by Roy Harris (1898-1979) , "Tears", published 1939 [mixed voices a cappella], from Symphony for Voices, no. ?
by Joseph Kaufer (1909-) , "Tears", published 1951 [voice and piano], from The Man with the Hoe and Other Songs, no. ?
by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) , no title, op. 97 no. 5 (1906), published 1908 [voice and piano], from Six Songs of Faith, no. 5.
by Joelle Wallach (1946-) , "Tears", published 1976. [SSAATTBB chorus a cappella]
by Wolfgang Wijdeveld (1910-1985) , "Tears", 1949, published 1949 [medium voice, violin, viola, clarinet, and piano], from Drie liederen, no. 2.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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