Upon Silence sets Long-legged Fly a late poem of Yeats which portrays three momentous figures in history absorbed in silent contemplation: Julius Caesar planning a crucial military campaign Helen of Troy as an adolescent in Sparta and Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. The verses are set in a syllabic manner while each successive chorus is set to increasingly lengthy melismas as like the long-legged fly above water the voice hovers above the strings. For Mezzo Soprano with String Ensemble.