Content:
Manuscript, heavily revised, made from four scraps of paper. Two of the
scraps (the second and fourth) were inscribed before being cut apart to
insert the material on the third scrap. This manuscript probably represents Whitman's reworking of a passage from the "Preface" of
As a
Strong Bird on Pinions Free. And Other Poems
(1872), which was reprinted as
Preface, 1872, to "As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free," (now "Thou
Mother with thy Equal Brood," in permanent ed'n.)
in
Two Rivulets
(1876),
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–83), and
Complete
Prose Works
(1892). Whitman revised the passage for use in "The War, though with two sides,
really ONE IDENTITY (as struggles, furious conflicts of Nature, for
final harmony.)—The Soil it bred and ripen'd from—the North as
responsible for it as the South," which appeared in the "Notes" section of
Memoranda During the War
(1875–1876). This piece was also reprinted in
Two Rivulets
(1876).
