Content:
A draft of the poem first published as "Calamus, No. 36" in 1860 ("Earth,
My Likeness" in the final version of
Leaves of Grass
). A number
8 and a roman number VI are at the top of the page. This manuscript has
a vertical line drawn straight through the middle. On the verso is a
page of prose in Whitman's hand with "Rel." at the top.
Content:
On one leaf of white wove paper (14.5 x 9.5 cm), in brown-black ink, with
revisions in lighter ink (including the deletion, undone in 1860, of the phrase
"My likeness!" after "Earth!"). Pinholes mostly at top and in center. Whitman
penciled in the number 15 in the lower-left corner. Originally poem XI in the
sequence "Live Oak, with Moss"
(with the Roman numeral ornamentally drawn), this was revised to become section 36
of "Calamus" in 1860. In 1867
Whitman retitled the poem "Earth! My
Likeness!"
