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- duk.ead01_duk.00034
O Mother, did you think
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Whitman Archive Title: O Mother, did you think
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Whitman Archive ID: duk.00034
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Repository ID: MS q 13
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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Date: about 1856
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Genre: poetry
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Physical Description: 4 leaves, handwritten
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Content:
On four leaves, an early version of portions of the poem ultimately titled
"This Compost,"
first printed under the title "Poem of Wonder at The Resurrection of The Wheat" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves
of Grass.
On the reverse sides of these leaves is a list of
words regarding the physical body and connected in concept to "I Sing the Body Electric,"
a poem that first appeared as the fourth poem of the 1855
Leaves of Grass.
With this
list, Whitman was gathering material for the noteworthy final section, a
paean to body parts, that he added to the poem in 1856. Glue residue
shows that these leaves were formerly pasted to two other leaves, upon which
is written a prose manuscript fragment regarding California Vigilance
Committees.
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