Content:
Some of the words and phrases in this manuscript appear in the first poem of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The manuscript also bears some resemblance to a line in the 1855 poem eventually titled "A Song for Occupations." The combination of "Love" and "Dilation or Pride" is also articulated in "Chants Democratic" (No. 4) in the 1860–1861
Leaves of Grass
, later titled "Our Old Feuillage." The reverse contains one cancelled line: "Not one of the heroic guests."
Content:
Emory Holloway has pointed out that Whitman's reference to the sinking of the
San Francisco
indicates that this notebook, "or at least part of it, is later than 1853." He writes that "it was probably begun in 1854" because the "marble church" in the first passage presumably refers to the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, "which was not completed until then." See Holloway, "A Whitman Manuscript,"
American Mercury
3 (December 1924), 475–480. See also Andrew C. Higgins, "Art and Argument: The Rise of Walt Whitman's Rhetorical Poetics, 1838-1855," PhD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1999; and Edward F. Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:128–135. Of the notebook passages that can be identified with published works, most represent early versions of images and phrases from the 1855 poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." One passage clearly contributed to the 1856 poem later titled "Song of the Open Road." Others are possibly connected to the poems eventually titled "A Song for Occupations" and "Great Are the Myths," both first published in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass,
and to the preface for that volume. One passage seems to have contributed to the 1860–1861 poem that Whitman later titled "Our Old Feuillage." One passage is similar to a line in a long manuscript poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures". The first several lines of that poem (not including the line in question) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880 and then in
Leaves of Grass
as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster (1881–1882, p. 310). No image of the outside back cover of the notebook is available because it has been stitched into a larger volume.
Content:
This notebook, now lost, contains much draft material used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in addition to a few images and phrasings that Whitman used in the second (1856) and third (1860) editions. As the folder title indicates, the notebook is currently represented by photocopied images of each page derived, apparently, from a microfilm of the original that was made in the 1930s prior to the notebook's disappearance from the collection during World War II. As Floyd Stovall has noted, the few datable references in this notebook (e.g., the fighting at Sebastopol during the Crimean War) are to events from about 1853 to late 1854, shortly before the first publication of
Leaves of Grass
. See Stovall, "Dating Whitman's Early Notebooks,"
Studies in Bibliography
24 (1971), 197–204. See also Edward Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:138–155. Surfaces 9, 10, 54, and 55 bear passages that probably contributed to the first poem of the 1855 edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself," and other material, on surfaces 26, 46, 51, 54, and 58, is clearly linked to the evolution of that poem. A passage on surface 23 is also perhaps related to its development. Surfaces 11 and 12 both have material probably used as fodder for the poem "Song of the Answerer," first published as the seventh poem in the 1855
Leaves.
A brief passage on surface 12 possibly contributed to the poem first published in 1860 as the fourth of the "Chants Democratic" and later retitled "Our Old Feuillage." Surfaces 13 and 46 contain drafts of passages used in the second poem of 1855, later titled "A Song for Occupations." Material on surfaces 24 and 47 probably also contributed to this poem. Passages on surfaces 17, 18, 40, 42, and 45 are likely early drafts toward lines used in "Poem of the Sayers of the Words of the Earth" (1856), which later became "A Song of the Rolling Earth." Surface 18 also bears writing probably related to the twelfth and final poem of the 1855
Leaves,
later titled "Faces." On surfaces 18, 24, and 51 are lines that might represent draft material toward "I Sing the Body Electric" (first published as the fifth poem of the 1855
Leaves
). Other passages, on surfaces 47 and 55, are likely related to that poem; those on surfaces 36, 37, 44, 45, and 47 are certainly related. Ideas and images written on surfaces 20 and 46 are likely related to the poem "Song of the Open Road," which first appeared as "Poem of the Road," and a passage on surface 24 may also be related. Two passages on surface 21 were used in the tenth poem of the 1855
Leaves of Grass,
later titled "There Was a Child Went Forth." Surface 22 contains writing probably used in "Sun-Down Poem" (1856), titled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in later editions. Some of the writing on surface 24 might also have contributed to the development of that poem. Another passage on surface 22, as well as passages on surfaces 26, 47, and 60, are possibly related to the 1855 Preface. A different passage on surface 60 is clearly related to the Preface, and a passage on surface 45 is likely related to it. Two of the draft lines of poetry on surface 31 were used in the untitled third poem of the "Debris" cluster in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
This poem was retitled "Leaflets" in 1867 and dropped from subsequent editions. The writing on surface 41 contributed to the 1856 "Poem of Salutation," which was eventually titled "Salut au Monde!" The jotting at the top of surface 43 is also likely connected to this poem.
Content:
On one side are two lines, heavily corrected, from a draft of the poem first
published in 1860 as "Chants Democratic 4" and eventually titled
"Our Old Feuillage."
On the other side are two lightly corrected lines with an uncertain
connection to Whitman's published poetry. This scrap has been attached by a
collector or archivist to a backing sheet, together with "(written for the
voice),"
"Poem of "(the Devil,"
and "Poem of Sadness."
Content:
This poem was originally numbered 89. Whitman also numbered each leaf in the
lower-left corner in pencil: the leaves follow the order 1-9, 9 1/2 (a full page
despite its number), and 10-15. The expression "the Eightieth year of / These
States" at the top of leaf 2 indicates that Whitman was working on this poem as
early as 1856. It became section 4 of "Chants Democratic" in 1860. In 1867 Whitman
ungrouped it and retitled the poem "American Feuillage," a name it kept until being permanently retitled
"Our Old Feuillage" in
1881.
Content:
A bound copy of six leaves (the poem "American Feuillage") from the 1876 edition of
Leaves of Grass
with multiple corrections and revisions, including the change of the
title to "Our Old
Feuillage." The revisions reflect the poem as it appeared in
the 1881
edition of
Leaves of
Grass
. "Our Old
Feuillage" has also been titled "A Chant of National Feuillage" and "Chants Democratic" No.
4.
