Calcot Hill: All the past we leave behind
Calcot Hill, Peter Tranchell's 1970 setting of Hymn 304 (S.O.P.), extracts from Walt Whitman's poem Pioneers! O Pioneers!, first line "All the past we leave behind".
Words:
1. All the past we leave behind:
We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson,
conqu'ring, holding, daring, venturing, so we go the unknown ways,
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
2. Not for delectations sweet,
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment;
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
3 All the pulses of the world,
All the joyous, all the sorrowing, these are of us, they are with us;
We to-day’s procession heading, we the route for travel clearing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
4 On and on the compact ranks,
With accessions ever waiting, we must never yield or falter,
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,
Pioneers! O pioneers