[Among the many]; [It is not this]

Whitman Archive Title: [Among the many]; [It is not this]
Whitman Archive ID: tex.00004
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Walt Whitman Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Box: 1
Folder: 1; 5
Series: Works, 1846-1913 and undated
Repository Title: Among the many aspects of thought…; It is not this business of voting…
Date: about 1881
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
View Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Content: On one side of the leaves, Whitman explores the idea that life, with its petty concerns, is "an exercise, a training & development" for an afterlife. A note at the top possibly indicates that the poet considered developing this thought in conjunction with "From Noon to Starry Night," a cluster that first appeared in the 1881–82 edition of Leaves of Grass . Edward F. Grier suggests, alternatively, that the writing is connected with Specimen Days (1882–83), "which is full of references to stars" (Walt Whitman, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, Edward F. Grier, ed. [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 6:2106). The writing on the reverse sides of the leaves explores the ideal roles of authors and the general public in shaping government and legislation. These notes are possibly related to Democratic Vistas, in which Whitman discusses the role of what he calls here the literary class in connection to democracy, as well as issues of voting and women's rights. The two leaves are housed and described separately at the repository.