Content:
Eight lines evidently written originally as part of "Death's Valley," which
was published first in
Harper's
New Monthly Magazine
in 1892. The stanza
later was slightly revised and published as "On the Same Picture" (the title was
probably supplied by Traubel) in 1897.
Content:
Whitman's correspondence indicates that the poem was written and sold to
Harper's New Monthly Magazine
in
1889, although it did not appear there until April 1892, after the
poet's death. Whitman originally included the poem in his 1891 manuscript for the "Good-Bye My
Fancy" annex to
Leaves of Grass
(1891–92), and Traubel grouped it in the cluster "Old Age Echoes," which he added
to
Leaves of Grass
in 1897. The
Harper's printing included an engraving, "The Valley of the Shadow of Death," by American
painter George Inness, which appeared facing the poem. On the verso appear the
notes "Death's Valley" (twice) and "Magazine/ April, 1892" in, possibly, Whitman
executor Horace Traubel's hand.
