Content:
Originally numbered 54 and titled "Leaf.—". The title was next "Songs—always wanted" and then "Mouth-Songs." This poem became
section 20 of "Chants
Democratic" in 1860, with leaf 1 corresponding to verses 1-6 and
leaf 2 ("The delicious singing of the/ mother...") to verses 8-10. In 1867 Whitman
revised the first line and permanently retitled the poem "I Hear America Singing"; in 1881
it achieved its final position in the cluster "Inscriptions."
