Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Lyrics: "War-Dreams" by Walt Whitman and William Byrd (Zachary Wadsworth

In a midnight sleep, of many a face of anguish,
Of the look at first of the mortally wounded - of that indescribable look;
Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide,
                 I dream, I dream, I dream.


Of scenes of nature, fields, and mountains;
Of skies, so beauteous after a storm - and at night the moon so unearthly bright, Shining sweetly,
shining down, where we dig the trenches and gather the heaps,
                 I dream, I dream, I dream.


Long, long have the passed - faces and trenches and fields;
Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure - or away from the fallen,
Onward I sped at the time - But now of their forms at night,
                I dream, I dream, I dream.


This was the text used in a recent Seraphim Singers concert titled "Oppression, Exile, and Solidarity."

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