Skip to main content

H. S. Kneedler to Walt Whitman, 23 April 1882

 loc_nk.00229_large.jpg Honored Sir—

But a few moments ago in an unknown country paper a paragraph with a "fling" at your poetry attracted my attention, and under the impulse of the moment, with an undefined purpose of assuring you of the love and reverence in which you are held by thousands, I took up my pen.

If the recognition of you has not been as demonstrative as that awarded to some others it is because your thought is in advance of your generation, and it will be the privelege of another age to award what this shortsighted one has neglected. Let one who sincerely reverences you as a man and admires you as a poet thank you for the example of your life and the heretage​ of song you will leave to your race.

Respectfully, H. S. Kneedler.  loc_nk.00230_large.jpg
Back to top