Epitaph for the Race of Man
DURATION
4’30”
INSTRUMENTATION
SATB (div.) a cappella
AUDIO
Volti; Robert Geary, conductor
POET
Edna St. Vincent Millay
YEAR COMPOSED
2003
COMMISSIONER
Volti
THIS IS A MOVEMENT FROM:
Sonnets of War and Mankind
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TEXT
Here lies, and none to mourn him but the sea,
That falls incessant on the empty shore,
Most various Man, cut down to spring no more;
Before his prime, even in his infancy
Cut down, and all the clamour that was he,
Silenced; and all the riveted pride he wore,
A rusted iron column whose tall core
The rains have tunnelled like an aspen tree.
Man, doughty Man, what power has brought you low,
That heaven itself in arms could not persuade
To lay aside the lever and the spade
And be as dust among the dusts that blow?
Whence, whence the broadside? whose the heavy blade? . . .
Strive not to speak, poor scattered mouth; I know.