ABSTRACT
The critical importance of Walt Whitman's poetry in the rebirth of British music in the early twentieth century has long been recognized by music historians, who cite as evidence such epochal works as Toward the Unknown Region and A Sea Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams. In 1884, at 32 years of age, Stanford enjoyed a growing national reputation, emanating from Cambridge University, for his work and achievements. Rossetti's introduction to Leaves of Grass was almost by accident. Though the four-movement structure of the Stanford's Elegiac Ode and the ternary design of Brahms's work differ markedly in detail. Elegiac Ode consists of four large movements: an opening chorus, a baritone solo, a soprano solo with female chorus, and a final chorus that features a slow section, an extended fugue, and a concluding section in which material from the opening chorus recurs. Stanford had been introduced to Whitman's poetry in Ireland, at home and at Trinity College, in the late 1860s.
