Content:
The term "Nibelungen" appears in a poem first published in the New York
Truth,
March 19, 1891
entitled "Old Chants."
The poem is one of the thiry-one poems included in "Second Annex--Good-Bye My
Fancy," 1891–1892.
Whitman Archive Title: America to the Old World Bards
Content:
A manuscript containing poetic lines that eventually led to the poem
"Old Chants," first published in
the New York publication
Truth
on 19 March
1891 and was later reprinted in
Good-Bye My Fancy
(1891). "Nat Bloom," the name that
appears on the recto of the third leaf, was a New York City acquaintance
of Whitman from as late as the 1870s, according to Edward Grier (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984] 4: 1405). If that is true,
then this constitutes a very early draft of "Old Chants".
Content:
A draft of the first five lines of the poem "Old Chants," first published in 1891. The
draft shows that Whitman also considered the titles "An Ancient Ballad
Reciting" and "An Ancient Song Reciting." The verso is blank.
Content:
Proofs of four poems pasted together and collected under the main
handwritten title "An Old
Man's Recitatives." The poems included are: "Ancient songs
reciting" (published as "Old Chants" in 1891), "Grand is the seen"
(first published in 1891), "Death dogs my steps" (published as part of
"L. of G.'s
Purport" in 1891), and "For us two, reader dear," first published
in 1891. A note in Whitman's hand in the right margin details
failed attempts to publish this grouping in
Scribner's
.
Content:
Proof pages of six poems collected under the general title "Old-Age Recitatives."
The poems included are: "Old Chants" (1891), "On, On the Same,Ye Jocund
Twain!" (1891), "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon
Yacht!" (1891), "L. of G.'s Purport"
(only two lines of the twelve-line poem of the same title first
published in 1891), "My task" (published as part of "L. of G.'s Purport" in
1891), and "For
us two, reader dear" (1891). At the top of the first page is a note to the printer
in Whitman's hand.
Content:
Draft of "Old Chants," made
of fragments pasted together, with corrections in Whitman's hand. Also
included on the page is a note by Horace Traubel reading "Given by Walt
Whitman to me and then by me to Will Innes, 1905." On verso: "Henry
Curtis printer, Cor: Bridge Ave. & 2d,
Camden." "Old Chants" first appeared in
Truth
(19 March 1891), and was reprinted in
Good-Bye My Fancy
(1891).
Content:
Written in ink on the inside of four discarded envelopes, one letter, and
a sheet made by pasting together the insides of three discarded
envelopes (all sent to Whitman in September and October 1890),
entitled "America to
Old-World Bards: A reminiscence from reading Walter Scott,"
published as "Old
Chants" in 1891.
