Content:
A partial horizontal line at the top of the first leaf indicates that Whitman cut
away the original title and number. Whitman numbered each leaf in pencil in the
lower left corner. These pages were transformed into section 13 of "Chants Democratic" in the 1860
Leaves of Grass
. In 1867 it was
greatly shortened and transferred to the final "Leaves of Grass" cluster. In 1872 the poem was
permanently retitled "Laws for
Creations" Its final position was in the cluster "Autumn Rivulets".
Content:
This manuscript contains a note composed around 1857-1859. It contains two phrases ("authors who
considered their subject with reference to the ensemble of the world"; "every
subject has been made too prononce' ") that are resonant with passages of the poem
"Laws for Creation" first
published in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
and later retained in all subsequent
editions of
Leaves of Grass
.