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Notebooks and Unpublished Prose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.
Content:
Trial titles, written in blue crayon and pencil. Whitman used a version
of the phrases here for the cluster title "From Noon to Starry Night," which first appeared in the
1881–82 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The titles are written on
the reverse side of a message form from the Camden post office dated
August 13,
1879.
