Content:
Poetry manuscript left unpublished by Whitman, containing ideas potentially
connected with the unpublished short story "Of a summer evening" (duk.00097). On the reverse (duk.00885) is a
fragment of an essay regarding municipal legislation.
Content:
Some of the language in this short piece of fiction also appears in the draft
poem "I am that half-grown angry boy" (duk.00027). It is not possible to know with certainty
whether Whitman wrote the prose or the poetic lines first. However, Whitman's
usual practice of composition suggests that the prose preceded the verse. The
prose is maudlin, sentimental, and conventional. The verse, though undeveloped,
shows more evidence of experimentation, again suggesting a later stage in the
composition process. Based on the handwriting, Edward Grier dates this manuscript to the late 1840s (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:46).
