Content:
A two-page draft of "Ethiopia
Saluting the Colors," which was first published in the 1871 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. Whitman had written the poem several years earlier and submitted it for publication in the
Galaxy
in 1867, under the title "Ethiopia Commenting." The poem was accepted by the
Galaxy
but never published. The poem was slightly revised after its 1871 printing before being included in the "Drum-Taps" cluster of the 1881 edition of
Leaves
. The placement of commas and dashes, as well as the inclusion of numbered sections, suggest that this particular draft was written sometime between 1867 and 1871 (the numbered sections were not included in the 1881 version). The second page of the draft shows two versions of stanza four, one written on the page and another on a separate slip of paper that Whitman pasted over the first as a revision.
