In Midnight Sleep

This setting of Walt Whitman’s poem In Midnight Sleep was written between December 2013 and April 2014. Whitman served helping the wounded during the American Civil War and these three verses clearly capture aspects of the horrors he witnessed. The setting is designed to highlight the emotional pain involved in what we nowadays would undoubtedly describe as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The work was first performed by Simon Grange (bass) and San Lau (piano) at the Royal College of Music, London on May 30, 2014.

In Midnight Sleep

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

Of scenes of nature, fields and mountains; (I dream)
Of skies, so beauteous after a storm (I dream) – and at night (of) 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, (long) have they pass’d – faces, 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.

Walt Whitman

(Words in brackets are added).