Content:
This manuscript includes ideas for two poems, one of which is titled "Poem for the good old cause." It is possible that this is a very early draft of the poem "To Thee Old Cause," which first appeared in the 1871 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. However, Whitman used the term "good old cause" as early as the 1855 edition, where it appears in the Preface. In the 1860–1861 edition the phrase also appears in the poem "To a Cantatrice" (eventually titled "To a Certain Cantatrice." It originated in England during the seventeenth century, shortly after the English Civil War, and was frequently used by Whitman (see Clarence Gohdes, "Whitman and the 'Good Old Cause,'"
American Literature
34.3 [November 1962]: 400–403). Edward Grier notes that this manuscript likely was written prior to 1860 (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 4:1329). The titles of both of the proposed poems ("Poem of...") suggest the title format of the 1856 edition. It is unclear whether the second proposed poem, titled
Poem of the People,
ever led to a published work.
