Ode to Death, Op. 38 (Gustav Holst)

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• (Posted 2022-03-01)  CPDL #68202:     

Editor: Douglas Walczak (submitted 2022-03-01).   Score information: Letter, 19 pages, 216 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Ode to Death, Op. 38
Composer: Gustav Holst
Lyricist: Walt Whitman
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Unknown

Language: English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 1922
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

Death Carol fr When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

Come, lovely and soothing Death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate Death.

Prais’d be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love—But praise! praise! praise!
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.

Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Approach, strong Deliveress!
When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead,
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.

From me to thee glad serenades,
Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee—adornments and feastings for thee;
And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread sky, are fitting,
And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.

The night, in silence, under many a star;
The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose voice I know;
And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil’d Death,
And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.

Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!
Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide;
Over the dense-pack’d cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways,
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!