Look Down, Fair Moon

“Look Down, Fair Moon” is from Walt Whitman's collection of Civil War poetry Drum-Taps, published in 1865.

Date: 1940Composer: Charles NaginskiText: Walt Whitman

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    Walt Whitman volunteered in the hospitals of Washington, D.C. during much of the Civil War, and he was profoundly moved by the experience. In Naginski’s setting of “Look Down, Fair Moon,” piano and voice reflect as stunned comrades upon the tragic essence of the poet’s words.

    Text

    Look Down, Fair Moon
    by Walt Whitman

    Look down, fair moon and bathe this scene,
    Pour softly down night’s nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple;
    On the dead, on their backs, with arms toss’d wide,
    Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.

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    Sheet Music

    Look Down, Fair Moon

    Composer(s): Charles Naginski

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