Content:
Manuscript note apparently recording the poet's early idea for the poem first
published as "Chants Democratic
20" in 1860, later as "I Hear America Singing." This scrap has been
attached by a collector or archivist to a backing sheet, together with
"And there a hunter's
camp,"
"Poem of "(the Devil,"
and "Poem of Sadness."
Content:
Originally numbered 54 and titled "Leaf.—". The title was next "Songs—always wanted" and then "Mouth-Songs." This poem became
section 20 of "Chants
Democratic" in 1860, with leaf 1 corresponding to verses 1-6 and
leaf 2 ("The delicious singing of the/ mother...") to verses 8-10. In 1867 Whitman
revised the first line and permanently retitled the poem "I Hear America Singing"; in 1881
it achieved its final position in the cluster "Inscriptions."
