Walt Whitman’s “The Sleepers” is a lengthy poem with many levels of meaning. It is recited by the poet in the first person, observing the democracy of the sleepers as he moves with empathy above and withing the vast array of humanity sharing the leveling consciousness of sleep. My setting of “The Sleepers” uses the eighth and final part of this poem. Written for soprano and chamber orchestra, the work was commissioned by Kathleen Kenny Suher, in memory of her mother Patricia Kenney Bertz.