Content:
Edward Grier dates this notebook before 1855, based on the pronoun revisions from third person to first person and the notebook's similarity to Whitman's early
"Talbot Wilson"
notebook (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:102). Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes the wreck of the ship
San Francisco
in January 1854 (1:108 n33). A note on one of the last pages of the notebook (surface 26) matches the plot of the first of four tales Whitman published as "Some Fact-Romances" in
The Aristidean
in 1845, so segments of the notebook may have been written as early as the 1840s. Lines from the notebook were used in "Song of Myself" and "A Song of the Rolling Earth," which appeared in the 1856
Leaves of Grass
. Language and ideas from the notebook also appear to have contributed to other poems and prose, including "Miracles;" the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
; "The Sleepers," which first appeared as the fourth poem in the 1855
Leaves
; and "A Song of Joys," which appeared as "Poem of Joys" in the 1860 edition.
Whitman Archive Title: The genuine miracles of Christ
Content:
This cancelled prose manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1855. Language in the manuscript was used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in the poem that was eventually titled "Song of Myself." Segments of the manuscript also resemble language that appeared in the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
and in the 1856 "Poem of Perfect Miracles," later titled "Miracles." The wording of "the vast elemental sympathy, which, only the human soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods," was used, slightly revised, in "A Song of Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
as "Poem of Joys."
Content:
This manuscript is written on a green sheet used for the
endpapers of the first edition of the
Leaves of
Grass
(1855), an edition that
begins with a ten-page statement in prose, originally untitled and later
known generally as the 1855
Preface
. This manuscript seems to represent
an early attempt by Whitman to recast the 1855 prose
Preface
into poetry. The 1860–61 edition of
Leaves of Grass
introduced two new poems created in this way: "Poem of Many in One" (later "By Blue Ontario's Shore") and "Poem of the Last Explanation of Prudence" (later "Song of Prudence"). Neither of the published poems incorporates lines from this manuscript, though it and "Song of Prudence" are drawn from adjacent portions of the 1855 Preface.
Whitman Archive Title: Such boundless and affluent souls
Content:
The second paragraph of this manuscript contains phrases and ideas similar to lines from the poem "Miracles," in particular the phrase "Every hour of the day and night, and every acre of the earth and shore . . . ." The poem was first published in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, where it was titled "Poem of Perfect Miracles." The title was changed to "Miracles" in the 1867 edition of
Leaves
.
Content:
An early notebook Whitman used for various purposes. William White, in his edition of Whitman's
Daybooks and Notebooks
(New York: New York University Press, 1978. 3 vols.), noted a relationship between rough drafts of poems in this notebook (called "An Early Notebook" in White's edition) and the 1860 poem eventually titled "Starting from Paumanok." On surface 54 is a passage that seems to have contributed to the 1860 poem that became "Song at Sunset." On surface 85 is a passage that perhaps contributed to the 1855 poem later titled "Song of Myself," and a passage on surface 62 might have been used in the 1856 poem eventually titled "Miracles." Because Whitman wrote entries from both ends of the notebook, the writing on about half of the leaves is upside-down in relation to other leaves. Some leaves have become disbound, and their original positions are uncertain. Our ordering is based on the earliest known transcription, done by Fredson Bowers in 1955.
Content:
A list of words and notes, mostly related to the sea. The last line of this manuscript is similar to a line Whitman used in "Miracles." Compare the draft line, "sound of walking barefoot ankle deep in the edge of the water," with the published line, "or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water." "Miracles" first appeared in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
under the title, "Poem of Perfect Miracles."
