Content:
This manuscripts contains 78 pages of text numbered by Whitman, and is
housed along with other materials related to
Good-Bye My Fancy.
To assemble the manuscript for the printer
Whitman used proof sheets, newspaper clippings, etc., between manuscript
pages, which were written mostly on paper fragments. "A Death Bouquet" was
written on a typewriter and inserted as part of the manuscript.
Throughout, innumerable changes, corrections, and directions for the
printer appear. The poems included are: "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht!,"
"Lingering Last
Drops,"
"Good-bye My Fancy,"
"On, on the Same, Ye Jocund
Twain!,"
"My 71st Year,"
"Apparitions,"
"The Pallid Wreath,"
"An Ended Day,"
"Old Age's Ship &
Crafty Death's,"
"To the Pending
Year" (earlier title "To the Year 1889" crossed out), "Shakspere-Bacon's
Cipher,"
"Long, Long Hence"
(earlier title "Under These
Poemets" crossed out), "Bravo, Paris Exposition!" (earlier title
"Bravo, Paris
Exhibition!" crossed out), "Interpolation Sounds,"
"To the Sun-Set
Breeze,"
"Old Chants,"
"A Christmas
Greeting,"
"Sounds of the
Winter,"
"A Twilight Song,"
"When the Full-grown Poet
Came,"
"Osceola,"
"A Voice from
Death,"
"A Persian Lesson,"
"The Commonplace,"
"'The Rounded Catalogue
Divine Complete,'"
"Mirages,"
"L. of G.'s Purport"
(which includes three poems originally composed separately, "My task,"
"Death dogs my
steps," and "For
us two, reader dear"), "The Unexpress'd,"
"Grand is the Seen,"
"Unseen Buds,"
"Good-bye My
Fancy!,"
"For Queen Victoria's
Birthday,"
"Death's Valley,"
"After an Interval,"
"As in a Swoon,"
"L. of G.," and
"After the
Argument." Also included are several prose pieces. Also in
this folder are a wrapper addressed to "Ferguson Bros. & Co;
Printers, Phila.," two statements by Ferguson Bros. to Whitman, a
statement dated May 18, 1891, by Grosscup and West, Phila. for the plates of
Whitman's portrait to be included in the book (they had been ordered by
Traubel), two trial title pages, and a proof portrait from the
engraver.
Content:
The notes on the recto are prefatory in nature and reflect the spirit of the
preface to Whitman's 1891
Good-Bye My Fancy 2d Annex to Leaves of
Grass
. The exact phrase, "the mullein and the bumble-bee" is
on page 36 of the section entitled "Gathering
the Corn" of
Good-Bye My
Fancy
. On the verso is a partial letter from Whitman to unknown friends.
Content:
Manuscript and corrected print material that was included in
Good-Bye My Fancy
(1891). Some
leaves are composed of various scraps of paper, including envelopes and pieces of correspondence that have been
pasted together to make larger leaves (see images 15 through 20).
